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The Longest Day is Hollywood's definitive D-day movie.More modern accounts such as Saving Private Ryan are morevividly realistic, but producer Darryl F. Zanuck's epic 1962 account isthe only one to attempt the daunting task of covering that fateful dayfrom all perspectives. From the German high command and front-lineofficers to the French Resistance and all the key Allied participants,the screenplay by Cornelius Ryan, based on his own authoritative book, is as factuallyaccurate as possible. The endless parade of stars (John Wayne, HenryFonda, Robert Mitchum, Sean Connery, and Richard Burton, to name a few)makes for an uneasy mix of verisimilitude and Hollywood star-power,however, and the film falls a little flat for too much of its three-hour running time. But the set-piece battles are still spectacular, andif the landings on Omaha Beach lack the graphic gore of PrivateRyan they nonetheless show the sheer scale and audacity of theinvasion. --Mark Walker ... Read more

Reviews (131)

Comparisons are inevitable; they're also unhelpful
The comparisons are of course between THE LONGEST DAY and SAVING PRIVATE RYAN. The only similarities are: both movies depict the allied landings at Normandy on D-Day, they are tributes to the servicemen of WWII, and most importantly, both are good movies. That said, general comparisons are unhelpful because the realism that made Spielberg's movie so memorable is totally absent from THE LONGEST DAY; for two very good reasons: (1) technically, the capability was unavailable in 1962 and (2) morally, that level of graphic violence would have been unacceptable. Also, Mr Zanuck, as director, did not want to make bloody messes of his numerous stars.

Realism aside, on its own merits THE LONGEST DAY is a tribute that has stood the test of time. The huge collection of stars (over 40) and the near 3 hour length qualifies it as epic. On an emotional level, it is a patriotic salute to the soldiers who went ashore. With a scope larger than Omaha beach, the focus is not exclusively American; the movie depicts the role of the British, and other allied troops, as well as the work of the French resistance. German dialogue is subtitled to add some realism. Perhaps the best aspect of the movie is that as an adaptation of Cornelius Ryan's book of the same name, it is based on a historically accurate account of the battle.

For realism, patriotism, and a sentimental heroic story, only partially based on real events of D-Day, watch SAVING PRIVATE RYAN. For an old fashioned, "clean" war movie based on history with good acting (Henry Fonda, Robert Mitchum, John Wayne, Curt Jurgens) watch THE LONGEST DAY. Better yet, view both, just don't spoil the experience with a lot of comparisons.

The Longest View
Unlike Saving Private Ryan, The Longest Day was filmed to dramatize the true, unfolding story of the invasion of France beginning several days before the invasion, which was documented for all time by journalist Cornelius Ryan. Ryan did something few historians have successfully accomplished since the end of the war. He compiled thousands of interviews and wrote a realistic account of the invasion which reads like a suspense and action novel. The movie seeks to combine many characters taken from Ryan's book, and is therefore fiction as well as history, but it is masterfully done and is otherwise true to history. Stereotypes of incompetent German officers and troops, so common in film and television of the early 1960's was not a problem in this movie, nor is the graphic violence of Private Ryan observable. The true story is the focus of the movie, and it was made primarily for veterans who had seen the real violence and had fought tough, intellegent and brave Germans, and had no need to be reminded of those horrors. They did have a desire to see their sacrifices and trials acknowledged alongside the background of historical context. It is a gripping movie. A side note for those who might want to compare The Longest Day with Saving Private Ryan. These should compliment each other, not be compared with each other. The audience for The Longest Day was primarily the veterans, their peers and children. The audience or Saving Private Ryan is primarily the grandchildren of the veterans, young people who are in the main, quite ignorant of history. There is no doubt that Saving Private Ryan is more accurate a portayal of historical American and German weapons and villages, but this was not even attempted in the Longest Day. If you will read The Longest Day before watching Saving Private Ryan, you will see that the sites and sounds remembered by many of the interviewed veterans who were at Omaha and Utah beaches somehow happened at the same time and place in Saving Private Ryan. That makes Saving Private Ryan as inaccurate for what it shows, as is The Longest Day, for what it doesn't show. Both movies are excellent, and both are moving.

IT HAS NOT STOOD THE TEST OF TIME
Director Darryl F. Zanuck tried his best with the technical resources at his dispostition at the time and using the narrative standar for epic movies of that time. But watching this movie today is a really act of courage. It drags and drags, the three hours seem to never end. Also, even if they tried to give a view of the global situation, they failed miserably.

The movie is an endless sequence of shell and fire sounds, a really pain. I simply don't like the movie, although I understand what they tried to do.

Only a Partial View of D-Day and Operation Overlord
Although this film is certainly worth watching, the viewer who has little idea of what Operation Overlord was about won't learn very much about it. Of course, we see many examples of heroism, but so much was left out that one can easily get a distorted view of things.
(1) Contrary to the impression that the Hollywood movie industry gives, the Americans and British did not defeat Germany alone. Three-quarters of the strength of the German Wehrmacht was destroyed by the Soviet Union. I realize that this film was made a the height of the cold war, but still some mention should have been made of their contribution to victory.
(2) The most impressive part of Overlord were the meticulous preparations made. Some mention of it was made, but more of it should have been shown, such as the various special weapons and ships that were made to ease the assault on the fortified beaches. Archive film could have been easily procured to show the various devices used to clear mine fields and barbed wire.
Most crucial was the development of the "Mulberry" artificial ports.
(3) This film used several Germans as advisors such as Blumentritt who were in the Wehrmacht High Command. They use this film as a vehicle for pushing the now largely discredited line that "if only Hitler had let the Generals run the war, they would have won it for him", and the also the myth that they opposed Hitler and held nothing but contempt for him (von Rundstedt calls Hitler "that Bohemian Corporal" in the film). In reality they were all very loyal to him and they really strongly supported him and his criminal policies when they were winning the war.
(4) The importance of the deception campaign making the Germans think the assault will be at the Pas de Calais and not a Normandy was very important and continued even after the landing on D-Day to make the Germans think Normandy was just a diversion.
This was not mentioned. A whole "virtual army" was created with fake radio traffic opposite Calais. This could have been shown as well.
(5) Although I have nothing personal against the man, John Wayne is a very poor actor and I have no idea where he got his reputation as one of Hollywood's leading men!

The Longest Movie
I watched on June 6th 2004 "The Longest Day" to learn about D-Day June 6th in 1944. In general it was a painfully boring movie. I accomplished my goal of learning about D-Day, but it was at a cost of wasting about three hours of my life. It is my belief that this story could have been told in one and a half hours instead of three. ... Read more

Reviews (20)

Good little German Movie
THE BRIDGE is a fine B&W WWII movie that is set in a village deep in Western Germany. All of the action occurs the last week of April, 1945.
This Movie is unique because of the time, location, and entirely German perspective of this tiny War story.
The eight kids who are assigned to guard, then defend, the bridge are 16 year olds. The climatic battle with the American Armored patrol is very well done (for the most part). What is interesting is that, because this is a German made film, the American soldiers and Sherman Tank gunners are all very bad shots (except for an American sniper with a scoped rifle). Where as in SAVING PRIVATE RYAN (an American made film), the German Wafen SS troops and Tiger Tank gunners who attack the bridge at Ramelle are also very bad shots!
Still the action is riveting for a low budget, foreign film. Unfortunately, the viewer has to wait an hour for the final battle, because most of the picture is character development, and it consists largely of teenagers yelling at their parents, which can be very obnoxious to listen in German dialouge.

A very good German war film
One of the few post-war (1959) German films to depict actual combat against the Americans, "Die Bruecke" (The Bridge) was shot on location in Bavaria in black-and-white with a low budget and mostly local actors. Still, it tells its story well and avoids the blah-blah, angst-ridden, self-psychoanalysis that plagues much German cinema. Set in the last days of World War Two, the film tells the story of a group of teenage schoolmates drafted into the home guard and assigned to defend the bridge into their village against the approaching Americans. Their leaders are middle-aged WW1 veterans (who recall their own combat experiences with bitterness) and die-hard Nazi fanatics (who can't admit the war is already lost). In simple, realistic scenes the director portrays the futility, confusion, terror and waste of all war, and the hopeless anarchy that existed in 1945 Germany. A well-wrought little gem. Too bad it hasn't found a larger American audience. Compares favorably with "A Walk in the Sun," which is at least available on VHS.

Not my favorite
... The one thing that truly upset me was the seemingly obvious attempt to make the Americans look as stupid as possible. The uniforms and equipment they were clad in were truly insulting. There were enough Americans in Germany at the time the movie was made that authentic gear would have been as close as a call to any American base. I realize this was a German film and was not intended to make the Americans look good, but come on. If the intent was to make the Americans look foolish--it worked. An effort to show the boys fighting a well equipped American force would certainly would have honored the boys efforts more effectively than showing them fighting the bunch of oafs portrayed. Save your money.

Excellent Perspective
I won't give a whole summary of the movie, but this movie is amazing.... you can see a completely different side of what we as Americans are used to. It shows sympathetic Amercian soldiers and the way a war and your pride can bring so much courage to a battle not meant for people this young. I don't think it really has anything else to say but PROPAGANDA, they wanted to fight becuase of what they saw and thier innocence is what held them together. Excellent film.

Little to add except...
Others here have already detailed what a fine (anti)war film Die Bruecke is and why. I can only echo those sentiments: this is a gripping film that really makes you think about militarism and war and their costs. I did find one unfortunate problem with this particular release of the film: the subtitles are at times wrong, but more often they cut and simplify the dialogue and seemingly make little attempt to recreate its nuances. On the bright side, this film isn't heavily rooted in dialogue: the plot and images speak louder than words and get the messages across as clear as day. Still, it would be nice to see this film re-released with better subtitling. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

Exceptional war drama
Marlon Brando plays a German deserter and ex-patriot living in British occupied India unwillingly drawn into a war he doesn't believe in. Blackmailed by a British Commander (Trevor Howard), Brando goes undercover on a German freighter to try and disable explosives designed to scuttle the ship in case of capture. The hardnosed Captain (Yul Brynner) has Allied prisoners and a concentration camp survivor (Janet Margolin)that he's ferrying from Japan to German. More importantly, his precious cargo is desperately needed to fuel the war effort in Germany.

Fox has done a great job transferring this fine film to DVD. The widescreen presentation and rich Deluxe vividly come to life with remarkable clarity and sharpness. While a couple of sequences look a bit soft, on the whole, the transfer is remarkably accurate and rich.

There really aren't any extras to speak of on this DVD. That's a pity. We do get the original theatrical trailer and preview trailer though.

Underrated and in some ways gripping
Brando plays a German who bolted from Deutschland when the war was about to start. He is recruited against his will by Statter (Trevor Howard), a British officer to attempt to save for the British a cargo of rubber on its way form Japan to France. Aside from the suicidal aspects of the project as pointed out by Brando's character Schroeder and its improbability in the real war, the movie has a mostly believable and compelling plot. The compassionless brutality of the ... is better and more realistically portrayed in this film than all but a few others, and it is graphically emphasized by the black and white format. A one point, a beautiful, young woman is casually shot with evident relish between the eyes by the ship's second officer, who is an enthusiastic .... Some American captive sailors are shown as cringing brutes without a great deal more moral cognizance than their Nazi captors. Yul Bryner struggles between loyalty to the Fatherland and his inner ... imperatives. In some ways, the movie is a polemic, but in others not. In any case, it is a gripping thriller, and the acting is uniformly excellent.

Great Brando Flick
Classic world-war 2 drama about a Nazi cargo ship wanted by the allies. British Intelligence sends a counter-espionage German agent who balances on the ship between life & death. A cool little film,very gripping. I was entertained immensely,any film Brando is in is worth buying in my view.

Worth Seeing Once
I am a Marlon Brando fan. To be honest I see no reason to see this movie if you are not. For a 60's Brando film this is probably one of the best. He seems to care. His German accent wears thin by the end of the film, but the plot is relativly engaging. Check it out.

Excellent underrated movie!
Morituri is an excellent Film which suprisingly is virtually unknown.It is an epsionage thriller set aboard a German freighter in WW2 which is taking back rubber from Japan.A German agent working for the British is on the ship to try and deliver the rubber into allied hands.

Marlon Brando is the agent and is as usual excellent in his role. But the best performance comes from Yul Brynner as Captain Mueller who is sick of the war and Hitler and the Nazis. Also Trevor Howard puts in a brief performance as the cynical Col.Slater which is good too. Excellent piece of cinema! ... Read more

Reviews (131)

Comparisons are inevitable; they're also unhelpful
The comparisons are of course between THE LONGEST DAY and SAVING PRIVATE RYAN. The only similarities are: both movies depict the allied landings at Normandy on D-Day, they are tributes to the servicemen of WWII, and most importantly, both are good movies. That said, general comparisons are unhelpful because the realism that made Spielberg's movie so memorable is totally absent from THE LONGEST DAY; for two very good reasons: (1) technically, the capability was unavailable in 1962 and (2) morally, that level of graphic violence would have been unacceptable. Also, Mr Zanuck, as director, did not want to make bloody messes of his numerous stars.

Realism aside, on its own merits THE LONGEST DAY is a tribute that has stood the test of time. The huge collection of stars (over 40) and the near 3 hour length qualifies it as epic. On an emotional level, it is a patriotic salute to the soldiers who went ashore. With a scope larger than Omaha beach, the focus is not exclusively American; the movie depicts the role of the British, and other allied troops, as well as the work of the French resistance. German dialogue is subtitled to add some realism. Perhaps the best aspect of the movie is that as an adaptation of Cornelius Ryan's book of the same name, it is based on a historically accurate account of the battle.

For realism, patriotism, and a sentimental heroic story, only partially based on real events of D-Day, watch SAVING PRIVATE RYAN. For an old fashioned, "clean" war movie based on history with good acting (Henry Fonda, Robert Mitchum, John Wayne, Curt Jurgens) watch THE LONGEST DAY. Better yet, view both, just don't spoil the experience with a lot of comparisons.

The Longest View
Unlike Saving Private Ryan, The Longest Day was filmed to dramatize the true, unfolding story of the invasion of France beginning several days before the invasion, which was documented for all time by journalist Cornelius Ryan. Ryan did something few historians have successfully accomplished since the end of the war. He compiled thousands of interviews and wrote a realistic account of the invasion which reads like a suspense and action novel. The movie seeks to combine many characters taken from Ryan's book, and is therefore fiction as well as history, but it is masterfully done and is otherwise true to history. Stereotypes of incompetent German officers and troops, so common in film and television of the early 1960's was not a problem in this movie, nor is the graphic violence of Private Ryan observable. The true story is the focus of the movie, and it was made primarily for veterans who had seen the real violence and had fought tough, intellegent and brave Germans, and had no need to be reminded of those horrors. They did have a desire to see their sacrifices and trials acknowledged alongside the background of historical context. It is a gripping movie. A side note for those who might want to compare The Longest Day with Saving Private Ryan. These should compliment each other, not be compared with each other. The audience for The Longest Day was primarily the veterans, their peers and children. The audience or Saving Private Ryan is primarily the grandchildren of the veterans, young people who are in the main, quite ignorant of history. There is no doubt that Saving Private Ryan is more accurate a portayal of historical American and German weapons and villages, but this was not even attempted in the Longest Day. If you will read The Longest Day before watching Saving Private Ryan, you will see that the sites and sounds remembered by many of the interviewed veterans who were at Omaha and Utah beaches somehow happened at the same time and place in Saving Private Ryan. That makes Saving Private Ryan as inaccurate for what it shows, as is The Longest Day, for what it doesn't show. Both movies are excellent, and both are moving.

IT HAS NOT STOOD THE TEST OF TIME
Director Darryl F. Zanuck tried his best with the technical resources at his dispostition at the time and using the narrative standar for epic movies of that time. But watching this movie today is a really act of courage. It drags and drags, the three hours seem to never end. Also, even if they tried to give a view of the global situation, they failed miserably.

The movie is an endless sequence of shell and fire sounds, a really pain. I simply don't like the movie, although I understand what they tried to do.

Only a Partial View of D-Day and Operation Overlord
Although this film is certainly worth watching, the viewer who has little idea of what Operation Overlord was about won't learn very much about it. Of course, we see many examples of heroism, but so much was left out that one can easily get a distorted view of things.
(1) Contrary to the impression that the Hollywood movie industry gives, the Americans and British did not defeat Germany alone. Three-quarters of the strength of the German Wehrmacht was destroyed by the Soviet Union. I realize that this film was made a the height of the cold war, but still some mention should have been made of their contribution to victory.
(2) The most impressive part of Overlord were the meticulous preparations made. Some mention of it was made, but more of it should have been shown, such as the various special weapons and ships that were made to ease the assault on the fortified beaches. Archive film could have been easily procured to show the various devices used to clear mine fields and barbed wire.
Most crucial was the development of the "Mulberry" artificial ports.
(3) This film used several Germans as advisors such as Blumentritt who were in the Wehrmacht High Command. They use this film as a vehicle for pushing the now largely discredited line that "if only Hitler had let the Generals run the war, they would have won it for him", and the also the myth that they opposed Hitler and held nothing but contempt for him (von Rundstedt calls Hitler "that Bohemian Corporal" in the film). In reality they were all very loyal to him and they really strongly supported him and his criminal policies when they were winning the war.
(4) The importance of the deception campaign making the Germans think the assault will be at the Pas de Calais and not a Normandy was very important and continued even after the landing on D-Day to make the Germans think Normandy was just a diversion.
This was not mentioned. A whole "virtual army" was created with fake radio traffic opposite Calais. This could have been shown as well.
(5) Although I have nothing personal against the man, John Wayne is a very poor actor and I have no idea where he got his reputation as one of Hollywood's leading men!

The Longest Movie
I watched on June 6th 2004 "The Longest Day" to learn about D-Day June 6th in 1944. In general it was a painfully boring movie. I accomplished my goal of learning about D-Day, but it was at a cost of wasting about three hours of my life. It is my belief that this story could have been told in one and a half hours instead of three. ... Read more