Must-watchWorld War II · Film · 1962
The Longest Day
From Eisenhower's decision to go despite the weather to the fight for the beaches, D-Day unfolds hour by hour through generals, paratroopers, commandos, resistance fighters and the Germans waiting behind the Atlantic Wall.
Where it happened
Follow the story across 7 places.
Stop 1: Southwick House, near Portsmouth
With the fleet waiting in a storm, Eisenhower weighs a narrow break in the weather and gives the order to go.
Stop 2: Pegasus Bridge, Bénouville
British glider troops crash-land beside the canal bridge and seize it in minutes, then wait for relief.
Stop 3: Sainte-Mère-Église
American paratroopers drop straight into a town square lit by a burning house, and one hangs helpless from the church steeple.
Stop 4: Utah Beach
General Theodore Roosevelt Jr. lands in the wrong place and decides to start the war from right there.
Stop 5: Pointe du Hoc
US Rangers fire grappling ropes up the cliffs and climb under fire to silence the guns on top.
Stop 6: Omaha Beach
Key location
Pinned at the seawall, the 29th Division and its commanders must blow a gap in the German defenses or die on the sand.
Stop 7: Ouistreham, Sword Beach
Free French commandos storm the fortified casino of Ouistreham as the British come ashore on Sword.
What really happened
The film adapts Cornelius Ryan's 1959 book about 6 June 1944, when some 156,000 Allied troops landed by sea and air in Normandy on five beaches, Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword, after airborne divisions dropped behind them during the night. Many veterans of the landings served as advisers, and several actors had fought in the war themselves.
It recreates real episodes with care: the glider assault on Pegasus Bridge, the paratrooper caught on the church steeple of Sainte-Mère-Église, the Rangers climbing Pointe du Hoc and the French commandos at Ouistreham. It simplifies others; at Pointe du Hoc the Rangers found that the guns had been moved inland and located them later that morning.
Where to watch
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Full details
- Original title
- The Longest Day
- Directed by
- Ken Annakin, Andrew Marton, Bernhard Wicki
- Countries
- United States
- Languages
- English, French, German
- Released
- 1962
- Period
- –
- Theaters of war
- Western Europe
- Themes
- Combat
- True story
