Cinema and television series (especially the extraordinary blood brothers) have recreated on many occasions the Normandy’s landing, of which this Thursday, June 6, marks 80 years. Some, more successfully than others; with greater or lesser depth and detail; but almost always with a great result. Here are several examples of the best movies about the Normandy landings.
Saving Private Ryan (1998)
The most perfect technical exercise of war cinema is found in the portentous and bloody landing on Omaha Beach in the first act of Saving Private Ryan. Spielberg deployed all his ingenuity and his mastery to place us as spectators on the front line of battle and film a pluperfect first half hour. Of the 11 Oscar nominations that the film starring Tom Hanks and Matt Damon received, including best picture, it won five: direction, photography, editing, sound and sound effects.
Saving Private Ryan can be seen on SkyShowtime.
The Longest Day (1962)
Up to three directors (Ken Annakin, Andrew Marton and Gerd Oswald) embarked on the film adaptation of Cornelius Ryan’s novel of the same name, although the captain in charge of the operations was its famous producer, Darryl F. Zanuck. For The longest day and its three intense hours of footage featured, among others, John Wayne, Robert Mitchum, Henry Fonda, Richard Burton, Robert Ryan and Sean Connery. Nominated for the Oscar for best film, it took home two of the five statuettes it was up for: best black and white photography and best special effects.
The longest day It can be rented on Apple TV+, Amazon Prime and Google Play.
Red One, Shock Division (1980)
Samuel Fullerthe director and screenwriter of Red One, shock division, poured onto paper, first, and then the screen, his experience as a member of the division that gives the film its title and which occupied one of the first front lines in Omaha. The eclectic cast with Lee Marvin, Mark Hamill and Robert Carradine works better than one might think to tell the story of a group of American soldiers who follow the orders of their sergeant on the European battlefields.
Red One, shock division can be seen on Filmin.
D-Day, June 6
Henry Koster, the director of this film, understood that in love and war, anything goes and he filmed both the Normandy landings and another type of battle fought by Captain Brad Parker (Robert Taylor) and Commander John Wynter (Richard Todd): win the heart of Valerie Russell (Dana Wynter), the woman they both fall in love with.
Overlord (1975)
The Berlin Festival awarded the Silver Bear to this original black and white work by Stuart Cooper, lasting just one hour and 20 minutes, which interweaves archival images from the Imperial War Museum with the fictional story of a soldier, from his training to his participation in the Normandy landings. John Alcott, a frequent collaborator of Stanley Kubrick, was in charge of the cinematography of Overlord.
Overlord It is available on Filmin and Acontra+.
