Review – The Longest Day

Not quite the longest movie ever made (I think Fassbinder’s still the title holder on that one), but still plenty lengthy. This is one of those war movies that tells the story of a famous battle (in this case D-Day) from many different perspectives. Thus it’s fun to watch just for the galaxy of major stars like John Wayne, minor stars like a host of early 60s heartthrobs, and then-minor-now-major stars like Sean Connery. Much of the dialogue is typical of the mucho-macho approach to combat flicks that was common when this movie was made (and really isn’t all that uncommon now), and the plot occasionally suffers from dulce et decorum est clichés. But for the most part the production manages to live up to its lofty ambition to paint a realistic and at least somewhat comprehensive portrait of the largest military operation in human history. Mildly amusing