"The Longest Day" was a massive project dramatizing D-Day, the Allied invasion of France. It was almost three hours long and with a huge cast, all playing supporting roles. The production was very concerned with realism, the actors were always of the same nationality as their characters, and spoke in their mother tongue, which gave rise to numerous subtitles translating the French and German dialogues. Although the film is historically correct, it was also supposed to be a blockbuster starring John Wane, Robert Mitchum, Sean Connery and Henry Fonda. But the American role in the invasion is not exaggerated, and German soldiers and officers are not presented as brutal stereotypes. The date of the invasion was decided in Washington in May 1943, but due to some difficulties it was postponed until June 5. The 5th was the unalterable date for the invasion. The troops and officers had been stationed in barracks for a month and were beginning to look forward to putting an end to the invasion. On June 5, due to bad weather, the invasion was postponed again, some ships were already on their way and had to be recalled. The film shows the meeting that General Eisenhower (Supreme Allied Commander, responsible for Operation Overlord) held to decide whether or not to continue the invasion. They decided to delay the invasion for twenty-four hours. The soldiers and officers were very excited when they learned that the invasion had only been delayed by 24 hours. They were worried: if the invasion was delayed any longer, they would have to wait another two months for the tide to return. The Allies thought long and hard about how to fool German intelligence. The Allies had air supremacy and so German reconnaissance planes failed. The Allies used this to their advantage, they set up fake landing craft and deliberately allowed German planes to operate in these skies. The Germans had also underestimated the Allies. They did not believe that the Allies would ever muster a navy large enough to attack the French coast, but on June 6, a fleet of more than 5,000 ships set sail for the French beaches. Before the Allied troops landed, there were several preparatory invasion bombardments, which had very little effect on the German fortifications. The film did a very good job of depicting... middle of paper ... some parts of the invasion were so intertwined that if one had failed, the others would have almost no chance of succeeding. The film also focused on an aspect that is not mentioned in most books, the French underground resistance. They played a small but extremely important role during the D-Day invasion. They marked out locations for paratroopers, cut some German communications, and sabotaged railways. The producer did a very good job researching this aspect of The Longest Day. The “Longest Day” was an extremely well-made film which recreated the events that occurred on June 6, 1944. The production was very attentive to realism, the actors were always of the same nationality as their characters and spoke in their mother tongue, which which gave rise to numerous subtitles translating the French and German dialogues. Even if the film was historically correct. This is one of the best American war films I have seen.BibliographyD-Day, Warren Tute, Collier Books, 1974Red Berets '44, Official Publication of the Airborne ForcesPegasus Bridge - June 6th 1944, Stephen E. Ambrose, 1985