The Longest Day

Darryl F. Zanuck did not shoot this with one director. Andrew Marton, Ken Annakin and Bernhard Wicki handled different sections, Zanuck directed some scenes himself, and Gerd Oswald was involved too. The division was not accidental: the film tells the Normandy landings separately from the American, British, Canadian, French and German sides. As a result, nearly half the dialogue is not in English. The Germans speak German and the French speak French, which was an unusual decision by the Hollywood habits of the time. Part of the cast had lived through the war: Henry Fonda, Kenneth More, Rod Steiger and Richard Todd were veterans. The technical advisers included Günther Blumentritt, James Gavin, Werner Pluskat, Josef Priller and John Howard, meaning real commanders from both sides. Around a hundred American D-Day veterans appear as extras. It was shot in CinemaScope in black and white and won the Oscar in that category. Its ten-million-dollar budget remained the largest for a black-and-white film until Schindler's List in 1993. Who it is for: viewers who want war seen not through one hero but from dozens of viewpoints inside a single day. Who it is not for: anyone who needs attachment to characters. Nobody stays on screen long, and across three hours it is hard to find someone to hold on to.