Making of, The Longest Day, inside details

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[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlwX1arei-4[/ame]


I think that many of you, like me, admire this superb movie about the D-Day landings. Here's a summary of little known details about the film's production.

I think you'll find it to be fascinating.
 
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I am still drawn to it and have almost all the lines memorized.

The casting was outstanding with excellent actors.

I have an emotional tie to some of the beach and inland scenes as we lost my great uncle taking Caen and my dad hit Normandy two weeks after the first wave.

Still a good flick.
 
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I haven't seen the movie in quite a while. I had no idea Ryan O'neal was in it; don't remember him. Was his part a very obscure one?
 
That video is a great collection of background info.

Until “Saving Private Ryan”, this was THE movie that represented D-Day. And while its level of “realism” obviously reflects 1962-appropriate sensitivities, it still provides a much more comprehensive view of the events than Spielberg’s tightly focused masterpiece.

Having the directors and actors of the different nationalities involved representing those viewpoints, and using the original language, subtitled where necessary, was brilliant and greatly enhances the authentic feel. And I enjoyed the details in this video, like the actor playing Major Howard having actually been in the fight at Pegasus Bridge.
 
Absalom said:
That video is a great collection of background info.

Until “Saving Private Ryan”, this was THE movie that represented D-Day. And while its level of “realism” obviously reflects 1962-appropriate sensitivities, it still provides a much more comprehensive view of the events than Spielberg’s tightly focused masterpiece.

Having the directors and actors of the different nationalities involved representing those viewpoints, and using the original language, subtitled where necessary, was brilliant and greatly enhances the authentic feel. And I enjoyed the details in this video, like the actor playing Major Howard having actually been in the fight at Pegasus Bridge.
Click to expand...

It still is!! Saving Private Ryan was a fictional story about a true incident that was not nearly so dramatic. Great movie but fiction. The Longest Day was a (mostly) true story.
 
Thoroughly enjoyed this presentation of facts regarding TLD. I did not realize that so many actual veterans had roles in the film.

I think the opening scenes of Saving Private Ryan were more realistic of the carnage that happened at Omaha Beach. A number of years ago a friend of my wife's had said she did not know about D-Day, and wondered why I flew the flag at my house on June 6. I took her inside and showed her the opening of Private Ryan. She was nearly in tears when she saw that representation that was in such horrific detail.

We must never forget.

John
 
Thoroughly enjoyed this presentation of facts regarding TLD. I did not realize that so many actual veterans had roles in the film.

Yeah, and Richard Todd as Maj. Howard in the Pegasus Bridge assault is one of them !

Regards, Ray
 
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Didn't Richard Todd also play Robin Hood on TV in the 1950's? (Or was that Richard Greene? Or, both?
 
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