There's a moment early on when the soldiers have been harboured for three days, waiting, and someone says something like "The latrines are all backed up - there's nowhere left to vomit" which I thought was probably the most realistic thing in this obviously dated but still quite impressive account of D-Day. You marvel at those huge beach shots (directed by Marton) and the work that goes into them, the scene from the German plane as it strafes over the incoming soldiers. (What happened to those strafing Germans, the last two pilots? Their story disappears, as does that of the brave Resistance group early on.)
The decision to keep everyone in their actual languages is a good one.
Whether Generals like those portrayed by Robert Mitchum and John Wayne would have actually been on the beaches is another matter.
The occasional absurdities are well caught.
The scene with the paratroopers coming down into the occupied town and being massacred is rightly horrific. Cornelius Ryan adapted his own novel.
Photography by Jean Bourgoin and Walter Wottitz won Oscar, though in the night scene near the swamp you wonder where all that lovely light is coming from. Samuel Beetley (Out of the Past) is the sole editor.
Too many people to mention, really, including Sean Connery just before Dr No, Kenneth More, Jeff Chandler, Red Buttons, Irina Demick, Gert Frobe, Curd Jurgens, Roddy McDowell.
I wanted to watch Saving Private Ryan on the same day.
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