After seeing Saving Private Ryan, this epic tale about the Normandy invasion will look sanitised. But in its re-creation of events leading to the epochal battle, The Longest Day is captivating and grand, and the parade of famous actors who cross the screen naturally give the already charged action even more of a boost. Three directors worked on it: Ken Annakin (Battle of the Bulge), Andrew Marton (Crack in the World) and Bernhard Wicki (this film being his only credit). --Tom Keogh

The Longest Day is Hollywood's definitive D-day movie. More modern accounts such as Saving Private Ryan are more vividly realistic, but producer Darryl F Zanuck's epic 1962 account is the only one to attempt the daunting task of covering that fateful day from all perspectives. From the German high command and front-line officers to the French Resistance and all the key Allied participants, the screenplay by Cornelius Ryan, based on his own authoritative book, is as factually accurate as possible. The endless parade of stars (John Wayne, Henry Fonda, 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, and if the landings on Omaha Beach lack the graphic gore of Private Ryan they nonetheless show the sheer scale and audacity of the invasion. --Mark Walker

In one of this special edition's most intriguing extras, the 1968 TV special D-Day Revisited, the erstwhile head of 20th Century Fox and producer of The Longest Day Darryl F. Zanuck takes a colour camera crew (most of whom worked on the film itself) to the real-life locations of the D-Day landings. Whether explaining D-Day to an ignorant young French bit part actress pretending to be a waitress at the cafe by Pegasus Bridge while waiting for cameraman Henri Decae to set up a shot ("What is D-Day?"), offering his interesting interpretation of how the French language should be spoken or briefly taking off the dark glasses he wears even in his office to discuss strategy, his eyes darting from left to right without ever looking at the camera even when addressing it directly, oozing sincerity from every pore, Zanuck is a screen natural.

That said, for all the egocentric camp value on display, there is also a good visual imagination at work to remind you of just why he was one of the legendary studio heads, with excellent use of a camera helicopter and an extraordinary final shot of the Allied cemeteries that is remarkably powerful and genuinely touching. For all the hokey presentation and grandstanding, there is no doubting his sincerity. When he made The Longest Day he set out to make money, but he also set out to make a tribute, and that comes across powerfully in the film itself.

The all-star approach does have its drawbacks (I remember seeing the film at the Imperial War Museum where the couple in front kept on arguing over the names of the stars and the parents in the audience read the titles aloud to their children) but works here better than most, largely due to the quality of the vignettes: paratrooper Red Buttons hanging from the church spire while all around him his comrades are massacred before they land by waiting Germans; Sal Mineo discovering that the identification signal for the Allied troops is identical to the sound of a rifle bolting; a group of Germans and Americans unwittingly passing each other by while looking up at planes; Richard Burton and Paul Anka's meeting in a farmyard. What is also interesting is that not only does it go to surprising lengths to avoid phoney war movie heroics but it does not overlook the Allied mistakes either.

Considering the visual flatness of many CinemaScope epics - particularly at Fox, where long takes and a stationary camera often seemed de rigueur - it is visually astonishingly ambitious. If there is the odd camera shadow on the massive tracking shot of the landing at Omaha Beach, it is entirely forgivable in context of a stunningly executed sequence. The aerial work is also particularly memorable, with striking shots of the attack on Ouistreham and a spectacular p.o.v. sequence from the cockpit of a German plane strafing the beaches.

With an international cast to take advantage of the foreign markets, here were minor differences between versions released in various territories, but this restores many of the cuts from previous video releases (such as Jean Servais' scene reluctantly ordering the French to shell their own homeland). However, the UK release loses points for not subtitling the film properly - for some of the French scenes you have to exit the film, go to the subtitles menu and choose English subtitles (no shortcuts) and then switch them off when the film returns to English.

Still a classic after all these years. Cornelius Ryan wrote two great books about single actions - The Longest Day and A bridge Too Far - both based on the extensive research involving many of the real people who appeared in the movie. In the Longest Day there is the additional plus that Richard Todd who plays Major Howard in the assault on what became known as Pegasus Bridge was actually Howard's second in command in the real assault.

It's star studded and full of little cameos but perhaps the heroics of John Wayne and Robert Mitchum are a bit overblown for today's tastes.

One little aside - my father, who went over the beach at Arromanches well remembered the bearded beachmaster with the bulldog called Churchill and he always said that he was just like the portrayal in the film.

I HAVE TO SAY THAT I FOUND THIS TO BE A FLAWED MOVIE. THE SCENES SEEMED TO HAVE BEEN SHOT INDIIVIDUALLY AND THEN STUCK TOGETHER IN A HAPHAZARD WAY.
THE NAIL IN THE COFFIN FOR THIS FILM HAS TO BE THE POPPING UP AT EVERY TURN OF A "MOVIE STAR" WITH SOMETHING HEROIC TO SAY OR DO.IT LOOKS LIKE A PROPAGANDA MOVIE

I know history I know some parts of D-Day make saving Private Ryan look like a Sunday School picknic but I have never seen a movie deal with any battle better. The film mentions most of those involved be they American, British, French or German. Sure there are a few mistakes such as the attack on the Point du Hock where the US Rangers attacked guns on the top of cliffs, the attack but find he gun housing empty. the section ends there but inreality two rangers found the guns nearbye and destroyed them. OK the production values are not up to todays but it stands up as the best war film ever due to it's large story and brilliant scenes like the French attack on the Casino.

this film coming some 20 odd years after the actual war end no doubt packed a punch with an all star line up. told from both points of view and in black and white. but regardless of the star wattage it is incredibly outdated and told from a romantic point of view which absolutely does not address the sheer blood and carnage of war. you have big name actors making long winded speeches at every juncture, almost as if theyre writing a book. smaller name stars show up in the scenery without anything to do, just so 60s audiences can point a finger and say 'hey look its...' if strictly historical, no one knew of the outcome of the d day landings. but here they know everything in hindsight. almost as bad as pearl harbor where during the bombing of pearl harbour, a soldier picks up the phone and says 'i think world war 2 has started!' i mean some the dialogue is that bad.