Longest Day

Discussion in 'Books, Films, TV, Radio' started by Mark Hone, Jun 9, 2004.

  1. Mark Hone

    Mark Hone Senior Member

    Watching the Longest Day on DVD this week reminded me of something that has always puzzled me. Why on earth are groups of Americans shown running up Omaha beach carrying large rubber dinghies? What were they planning to do with them?
    Incidentally one of the 'extras' on the DVD, where Darryl F. Zanuck, the film's producer returns to Normandy for the 25th Anniversary of D-Day, is both interesting and in places unintentionally hilarious. His phoney interview with a French waitress at the Cafe Gondree and his pronunciation of 'Per-gace-us Bridge' have to be seen and heard to be believed. On the other hand, his final piece to camera at the American cemetery is extremely moving.
     
  2. MalcolmII

    MalcolmII Senior Member

    Just don't mention it to any Canadians though!!

    Aye
    Malcolm
     
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  3. Mark Hone

    Mark Hone Senior Member

    I presume you mean, Malcolm, that the Canucks are not mentioned at all in 'Longest Day'. A great pity as everyone else gets a pretty fair crack of the whip for once in an American film.
     
  4. MalcolmII

    MalcolmII Senior Member

    Yes Mark. They had an opportunity to do a 'really good film', but spoiled it by ignoring the Canadian landing altogether. In the end they made a 'good film', but it caused a lot of offence to the Canadian D Day veterans.

    Aye
    MalcolmII
     
  5. Kiwiwriter

    Kiwiwriter Very Senior Member

    The Canadians appear ONCE in the whole film...the two guys who parachute into the greenhouse held by the German officer who puts his boots on the wrong way.

    Then they take off.

    But the officer turns up at the end of the film, plugged by Richard Burton, who mets up with Richard Beymer. So this officer, in the wrong boots, walks from the Canadian DZ on the left bank of the Orne, all the way to Ste-Mere Eglise.

    In the wrong boots.

    In one day.

    Riiiiight. o_O

    Oh, and Burton talks about being patched up by a medic with safety pins. The medic who did that, Sgt. Alfred Eigenberg, did so to a buddy on Omaha Beach.

    Which did not hook up with the American airborne on D-Day. :wacko:
     
  6. canuck

    canuck Closed Account

    They played this garbage again here this evening. Malcolm is right, it does piss us off. I watched a bit until the Free French Navy appeared. The acting is terrible anyway.

    Bloody hell, upstaged by the token 177 FF commandos and 32 FF paras.
     
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  7. Steve Mac

    Steve Mac Very Senior Member

    I don’t recall any scenes of the assault on Gold Beach either. It’s not just the Canadians that were omitted, the 50th (Northumbrian) Division were too.

    Similarly, in a Bridge Too Far...

    Best,

    Steve.
     
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  8. SDP

    SDP Incurable Cometoholic

    Isn't Gold covered by the bit where the sole Luftwaffe plane strafes the beach?
     
  9. canuck

    canuck Closed Account

    If you relied on the movie you would be left with the impression that the British contribution to the liberation of Normandy was confined to Peter Lawford and Richard Burton.
     
  10. Ramiles

    Ramiles Researching 9th Lancers, 24th L and SRY

    Sometimes films get edited / cut for different audiences, or have different soundtracks etc.

    This film feels like the "American version" - so it would be nice to see the Canadian edit and the British one too etc. ;-)

    I hadn't looked into this previously, to see what the intention was here: The Longest Day (film) - Wikipedia

    Its basis being etc. on the work of: Cornelius Ryan - Wikipedia

    It says: "On a trip to Normandy in 1949 Ryan became interested in telling a more complete story of Operation Overlord than had been produced to date. He began compiling information and conducting over 1000 interviews as he gathered stories from both the Allies and the Germans, as well as the French civilians."

    The book: The Longest Day (book) - Wikipedia

    "The book is not a dry military history, but rather a story about people, and reads at times like a novel. It is based on interviews with a cross-section of participants, including U.S., Canadian, British, French and German officers and civilians."

    Currently has this description on Amazon: "Cornelius Ryan tells the story of the hours that preceded and followed H-Hour of D-Day June 6, 1944, when as dawn approached, as paratroopers fought in the hedgerows of Normandy, the greatest armada the world had ever known assembled off the beach -- almost 5000 ships carrying more than 200,000 soldiers. a military This is the story of people: the men of the Allied forces, the enemy and the civilians caught up in the confusion of battle. 700 D-Day survivors were interviewed for the book."

    Some copies (i.e. on Amazon) are practically being "given away" - though, the adverts will probably also ask - too - if you want at the same time to "buy the DVD of the film" ;-)

    Post "post" Edit ;-)
    : for the film, on the wiki (currently) I noticed this: "Unique for British- and American-produced WWII films of the time, all French and German characters speak in their own languages with subtitles in English. Another version, which was shot simultaneously, has all the actors speaking their lines in English (this version was used for the film's trailer, as all the Germans deliver their lines in English). However, this version saw limited use during the initial release. It was used more extensively during a late 1960s re-release of the film" as well as "A colorized version of this film was released on VHS in 1994, the 50th anniversary of the invasion." :unsure:

    I found the casting section, quite interesting to browse through: The Longest Day (film) - Wikipedia

    Whilst for the book: "Cornelius Ryan dedicated his book for all the men of D-Day" - this of course omits the women - many of whom were involved as well.

    Could there be a remake one day? I would suppose so, but these days the tendency, I think, is to make films that focus more on "less".

    Someone like Peter Jackson could turn it in to a "trilogy" though ;-)

    The book wiki has: The Longest Day (book) - Wikipedia

    "Ryan's book is divided into three parts: the first part is titled The Wait, the second part is named The Night and the third part is named The Day."
     
    Last edited: Nov 12, 2018
  11. SDP

    SDP Incurable Cometoholic

    .....and John Wayne did the rest.....
     
  12. brithm

    brithm Senior Member


    During the film 'The Longest Day', Philippe Kieffer's French commandos storm the large and majestic casino of Ouistreham. The reality is somewhat different...

    Thanks to Darryl Zanuck's film, we all remember the commandos with the French green berets storming the Cassino in Ouistreham. In the film, this was an elegantly beautiful building in an empire style that was situated on the French coast. During the fighting, nuns in the film come to the French commandos to take care of the wounded. It is particularly impressive and at the same time moving to see how the nuns go to work while the grenades hit close by. The reconstruction of the attack on the Cassino took place in Port-en-Bessin and not Ouistreham. On June 6, 1944, Kieffer's commandos saw no nuns and no Cassino. "The only historical fact is that the 1er Bataillon the Fusiliers Marins Commandos land in Ouistreham on June 6, 1944. After that, it's a succession of historical distortions. This is what Gwen-Aël Bolloré wrote, one of the 177 French commandos after seeing the film at its premiere in September 1962.

    [​IMG]
    The casino in Ouistreham. It gave direct access to the beach.

    There was of course a casino in the bay of Ouistreham, before the war this Cassino made an important contribution to the seaside resort, and this was completely stimulated by the arrival of paid holidays. But during D-Day, Cassino no longer existed. The Germans found the site of the casino of strategic value and had therefore demolished the casino in 1943. Only the foundation and the basement were retained, after which a concrete fortification was built on it. An MG 42 machine gun was positioned at the top and a 20 mm Flak position was placed. Trenches were built around the concrete fortification, so that the positions in the concrete fortification could be reached unseen by the Germans. The area was no longer equipped for tourists, but it was greatly fortified with mines, trenches and various German fortifications. All that remained of the Cassino was the stairs and two entrance gates, a reminder of the time when one's savings or wealth could be lost.

    [​IMG]
    The Germans did not leave much of the casino. Only the stairs and foundation were retained. This can also be seen in this picture.

    The Allied intelligence services studied several aerial photographs, which revealed the large area around the Cassino. They were also intrigued by the flatness and lack of altitude, a priority objective for the troops to be in action at Ouistreham. This is why the capture of the Cassino and its surroundings was one of the two tasks of Philippe Kieffer's commandos. In addition, he had to eliminate the rest of the German defenses along the coast. The French commandos carried out these two tasks with bravery and efficiency, but at the cost of heavy losses. On the evening of June 6, 1944, the only French unit integrated into the invasion force had ten dead and thirty wounded, nearly a quarter of the strength. The capture of the casino bunker alone cost three deaths: Paul Rollin, the medical officer Lion and Emile Renault.

    [​IMG]
    After Philippe Kiefer recovered from his injuries, he returned from England. He received a high military decoration from General Montgomery. Amfreville (Calvados), July 16th, 1944.

    Philippe Kieffer was injured in his leg during the actions, but refused to be evacuated on the beach. He continued to direct the commands during the attack on the casino bunker. In 'The Longest Day' he is played by the actor Christian Marquand. In the film you can see that he drives a tank towards the Cassino, this scene is true. This tank played a decisive role in taking the cornerstone of the German defenses. The tank switched off the cannon in the bunker and the cannon in the viewing platform at the top. These cannons protected the avenue that ran to the sea.

    [​IMG]
    An elegant empire-style building was built separately for the film "The Longest Day" in Port-en-Bessin. The recordings for the attack on the casino lasted two weeks. The scene in the three-hour film lasts about 10 minutes.

    Despite the historical distortions, the film 'The Longest Day' was received with great success in the autumn of 1962. In France alone, 12 million people watched the film during its premiere. Every time the film is shown on television, it attracts a huge number of viewers. When the film was first shown on television in France in 1976, so much was watched that the power grid couldn't handle it and the fuses jumped. As a result, the regions of Brittany and Normandy suddenly lost the picture.
     
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  13. OpanaPointer

    OpanaPointer Pearl Harbor Myth Buster

    Say what you will, but the March of the Penguins made that scene!~ :-P
     
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  14. idler

    idler GeneralList

    I believe the obstacle clearance teams used them to float their explosives ashore on the day. Their presence obviously didn't escape thr production team but their purpose might have.
     
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  15. OpanaPointer

    OpanaPointer Pearl Harbor Myth Buster

    The dinghies allowed the troops to land equipment and ammo rather drier that just lugging it ashore. If a landing craft got stranded on some obstacle the troops would have to get ashore with their bangalores, etc., with the dinghies doing the donkey work.
     
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