History Film / TheLongestDay

The huge AllStarCast included Creator/RichardBurton, Creator/RedButtons, Creator/HenryFonda, Creator/JeffreyHunter, Creator/CurdJurgens, Creator/RobertMitchum, Creator/RobertRyan, Creator/JohnWayne, Creator/HansChristianBlech, Creator/GertFrobe, Creator/MelFerrer, Creator/{{Bourvil}}, Creator/GeorgesWilson and many others. Because the film was made just 18 years after the events it depicts, many of the older actors had actually fought in the war, and some had even taken part in the landings. Richard Todd even played his own commanding officer from 1944.[[note]]Todd had participated in the Pegasus Bridge operation as a young soldier, and is even shown in the film interacting with "himself", although this is never mentioned in the film. Supposedly, he was offered the chance to play himself, but he picked his CO instead because he felt his own role in the landings was too small. [[/note]]

** A variation also shows up in the form of troops being dropped in via glider (rather than parachute) in order to take Pegasus Bridge. [[note]] Somewhat ironically, they are led by Major John Howard, played in the movie by Richard Todd, who was actually a paratroop officer during World War II who landed via parachute to reinforce Howard's glider troops at the Pegasus Bridge. Major Howard, played by Todd, the former paratrooper, exchanges a joke with Lt. Todd, played by an uncredited Patrick Jordan, about how "paras are always late." [[/note]]

** A variation also shows up in the form of troops being dropped in via glider (rather than parachute) in order to take Pegasus Bridge.

''The Longest Day'' is a 1959 book by Cornelius Ryan describing the events of D-Day, the landings of the Allies ([[UsefulNotes/YanksWithTanks Americans]], [[UsefulNotes/BritsWithBattleships British]], [[UsefulNotes/GaulsWithGrenades Free French]] and [[UsefulNotes/CanucksWithChinooks Canadians]]) in Normandy on June 6, 1944, which was the crucial first step in the liberation of Western UsefulNotes/{{Europe}} from the [[UsefulNotes/NazisWithGnarlyWeapons forces]] of UsefulNotes/NaziGermany during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. The events are seen through the eyes of as many of the participants -- Allies, Germans, and local inhabitants -- as he could find and interview.

* LoveCanForgiveAnythingButLust: Completely averted by the British soldier who is worried for his wife because she's going to have a baby soon, even though he's fully aware that the baby isn't his.

** The 'Genius Generals, Stupid Hitler' myth promoted by German Generals' memoirs, has been shown to be more of a case of the generals trying to look better than they actually were. The German generals were completely fooled by the invasion in Normandy instead of the Pas-de-Calais. And the armored divisions they wanted Hitler to release would have been shredded by naval gunfire, as something similar had been attempted at Salerno in Italy a year prior — a single Allied destroyer wiped out a German tank force. In Normandy there were battleships waiting for those tanks to show up.

The huge AllStarCast included Creator/RichardBurton, Creator/RedButtons, Creator/HenryFonda, Creator/JeffreyHunter, Creator/CurdJurgens, Creator/RobertMitchum, Creator/RobertRyan, Creator/JohnWayne, Creator/HansChristianBlech, Creator/GertFrobe, Creator/MelFerrer, Creator/{{Bourvil}} and many others. Because the film was made just 18 years after the events it depicts, many of the older actors had actually fought in the war, and some had even taken part in the landings. Richard Todd even played his own commanding officer from 1944.[[note]]Todd had participated in the Pegasus Bridge operation as a young soldier, and is even shown in the film interacting with "himself", although this is never mentioned in the film. Supposedly, he was offered the chance to play himself, but he picked his CO instead because he felt his own role in the landings was too small. [[/note]]

** A great many important German officers were away from their posts on the morning of the invasion... so that they could participate in war games about a cross-channel invasion by the Allies - and in which the person selected to command the [=OpForce=],General Marcks, had chosen a battle plan that bore many similarities to the one Eisenhower came up with and implemented.

** The 'Genius Generals, Stupid Hitler' myth promoted by German Generals' memoirs. Most German Generals, including the ''Wehrmacht'' General Staff, believed that the Norman landings were a diversion. Hitler actually displayed wisdom in trusting their professional opinion.
%%** The 'Honourable ''Wehrmacht''' myth promoted by ''Wehrmacht'' veterans. Though to be fair, the Germans really did consider the ethnically European soldiers of the Western Allies to be only slightly racially inferior to themselves and so did not commit atrocities against them with anything even approaching the usual frequency and intensity.
%%Not displayed in the film. Maybe in the book?

** Early in the film, Lt. Col. Vandervoort bemoans the weather continually preventing the Allies from commencing the invasion, musing "sometimes I wonder whose side God is on." Later, after the invasion has commenced, but none of the German High Command will take early warnings seriously, an officer muses the exact same line.

** A great many important German officers were away from their posts on the morning of the invasion... so that they could participate in war games about a cross-channel invasion by the Allies - and in which the person selected to command the [=OpForce=] had chosen a battle plan that bore many similarities to the one Eisenhower came up with and implemented.

* ItsRainingMen: Including, unfortunately for those dropping, straight heavily defended Sainte-Mere-Eglise, which they were supposed to land outside of, then march in to capture. And on a more humorous note, straight onto General von Salmuth's headquarters.

* TakeAThirdOption: Rommel wants to fight right on the beaches, so close to the Allied troops that they will hopefully not dare to make use of their crushing and total supremacy in (ship-based) artillery, and destroy the beachhead. Rundstedt thinks that Allied artillery supremacy makes it impossible to destroy the beachhead and wants to establish a solid defensive line inland, just out of range of the Allied navy. As is typically the case in military matters, The Third Option falls under the GoldenMeanFallacy. Neither general has overall command or sufficient armor to execute their plan without consulting their joint commander - the Hitler's HQ back in Berlin (Which refused to mobilize the tanks without first consulting with Hitler, who was sleeping in that day).

''The Longest Day'' is a 1959 book by Cornelius Ryan describing the events of D-Day, the landings of the Allies ([[UsefulNotes/YanksWithTanks Americans]], [[UsefulNotes/BritsWithBattleships British]], [[UsefulNotes/GaulsWithGrenades Free French]] and [[UsefulNotes/CanucksWithChinooks Canadians]]) in Normandy on June 6, 1944, which was the crucial first step in the liberation of Western Europe from the [[UsefulNotes/NazisWithGnarlyWeapons forces]] of UsefulNotes/NaziGermany by the Western Allied forces during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. The events are seen through the eyes of as many of the participants -- Allies, Germans, and local inhabitants -- as he could find and interview.

''The Longest Day'' is a 1959 book by Cornelius Ryan describing the events of D-Day, the landings of the Allies in Normandy on June 6, 1944, which was the crucial first step in the liberation of Western Europe from the [[UsefulNotes/NazisWithGnarlyWeapons forces]] of UsefulNotes/NaziGermany by the Western Allied forces during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. The events are seen through the eyes of as many of the participants -- Allies, Germans, and local inhabitants -- as he could find and interview.

* TakeAThirdOption: Rommel wants to fight right on the beaches, so close to the Allied troops that they will hopefully not dare to make use of their crushing and total supremacy in (ship-based) artillery, and destroy the beachhead. Rundstedt thinks that Allied artillery supremacy makes it impossible to destroy the beachhead and wants to establish a solid defensive line inland, just out of range of the Allied navy. As is typically the case in military matters, The Third Option falls under the GoldenMeanFallacy. Neither general has overall command and the only common link is back in Germany at Hitler's HQ (Which refused to mobilize the tanks without first consulting with Hitler, who was sleeping in that day), and neither plan has sufficient panzers for it to work.

The huge AllStarCast included Creator/RichardBurton, Creator/RedButtons, Creator/HenryFonda, Creator/GertFrobe, Creator/JeffreyHunter, Creator/CurdJurgens, Creator/RobertMitchum, Creator/RobertRyan, Creator/JohnWayne, Creator/MelFerrer, Creator/{{Bourvil}} and many others. Because the film was made just 18 years after the events it depicts, many of the older actors had actually fought in the war, and some had even taken part in the landings. Richard Todd even played his own commanding officer from 1944.[[note]]Todd had participated in the Pegasus Bridge operation as a young soldier, and is even shown in the film interacting with "himself", although this is never mentioned in the film. Supposedly, he was offered the chance to play himself, but he picked his CO instead because he felt his own role in the landings was too small. [[/note]]

** Benjamin Vandervoort. Played by Creator/JohnWayne? Check. Battalion commander in the [[ElitesAreMoreGlamorous 82nd Airborne]]? Check. Breaks his ankle on landing and refuses to leave his men... for [[UpToEleven weeks?]] Double check.