Warbird Information Exchange

i was the guy on the beach, trying to get up the sand. Did you see that part?

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" I am a nobody in aviation, but somebody to my family."

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S.

Great acting, probably two of the best war movie scenes ever shot. First, The glider attack on Pegasus Bridge. I read the book by Steven Ambrose and everything is right on. Second is the French attack on Oiusteram. That long aerial shot of the commandos is somthing Ive never seen before or since. The airborne scenes were good, but the beach landing scenes were disappointing.

Longest Day is one of my favorite films. I do enjoy the aviation scenes with the two German pilots. I lean toward the older war films because there isn't any unnecessary material in the film.

German is my second language. I very much enjoyed the German portions as it helped keep me "immersed" in "Deutsch".

In the 1960's, the film industry tried to tell an epic story with dozens of A list celebs ( note I didn't say actors). This is one of the effforts. In addition to A list actors, the cast was sprinkled with a couple of pop singers to make the movie more marketable. Time will only tell if the decision to use singers instead of actors was worth it. This kind of thing ticks off purists. The film wasin black and white instead of color, which was widely available at the time. As a student of film, now going into film, I feel this was a mistake. Black and white should be used in some genres, but this isn't one of them. It is important to note that not only were there dozens of actual WW2 vets on the cast and crew, but also, three of the cast were D-Day veterans. They understood that there are two things people shouldn't see-an actual battle being fought, and the making of sausage. This was a huge failing of Saving Private Ryan, but don't get me started. In any case, this is a sanitized telling of the tale, and it works. The movie was also semi documentary in style, telling both sides of the story, with the German side told in German. I especialy love the casting of Von Rundstet, tooo bad the American side of the efffort wasn't as careful with their casting. There is a lot to love about this film. Four and a half stars out of five.

Dead even at 4 or 5 stars..... who will be the deciding vote....

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Scott Rose
Editor-In-Chief/Webmaster
Warbirds Resource Group - Warbird Information Exchange - Warbird Registry

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