Movies
Top 10 Films To Watch For The 70th Anniversary Of D-Day
Today, June 6, marks the 70th anniversary of the Normandy landings in 1944 – one of the key historical events of the 20th century.
D-Day was the day in World War II when U.S.-led Allied forces invaded northern France by means of beach landings in Normandy. The invasion ultimately brought down Nazi Germany, and the day lives on in the memory of every American.
It also resonated in Hollywood, as movie directors aimed to translate the war happenings on to the movie screens for the public to be aware of what is going on overseas. After years of film making, with actor John Wayne taking the lead in depicting the men fighting in Europe and the Pacific, one particular movie has been dubbed the best war film of all time – Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan (1998).
The epic film, starring actors Tom Hanks and Jeremy Davies, has successfully represented World War II. It will forever be the top movie for any war film to be compared to.
Check out the many ways to celebrate, honor and remember this day on which so many gave their lives by watching the top ten movies on the war.
10. Red Ball Express (1952) IMDB – 6.3
Cast
Starring: Jeff Chandler, Alex Nicol, Charles Drake, Judith Braun, Sydney Poitier, Hugh O’Brian, Jacqueline Duval
Film Synopsis
Red Ball Express deals with the little-known activities of the U.S. Army Transportation Corps during WW II. It so happened that many of the Corps’ most courageous drivers were black men, who otherwise would have been denied an opportunity for combat duty. Sidney Poitier plays Corporal Andrew Robinson, who resents his second-class-citizen status and chafes at the orders issued by his white commanding officer Lt. Chick Campbell (Jeff Chandler). Meanwhile, Campbell has his own cross to bear in the form of relentlessly hostile sergeant Ernest Kalek (Alex Nicol). All differences are conveniently forgotten in the climactic euphoria of providing ammunition for General Patton’s tanks during the Allied push to Paris in 1944. Considered just another war picture in 1952, Red Ball Express has since taken on added stature by virtue of the presence of actor Sidney Poitier and director Budd Boetticher.
9. Eye of the Needle (1981) IMDB – 7.1
Cast
Starring: Donald Sutherland, Kate Nelligan, Ian Bannen, Christopher Cazenove, Barbra Ewing, David Hayman
Film Synopsis
Having already been seen spying for the Nazis in 1979’s The Eagle Has Landed, Donald Sutherland once more infiltrates wartime England on behalf of Der Fuhrer in Eye of the Needle. Willing to kill even the most innocent of bystanders to complete his task, Sutherland manages to remain in Britain until the eve of D-Day in 1944. Discovering that the invasion is to take place on Normandy, Sutherland scurries to rendezvous with a U-boat off the treacherous Isle of Storms. His mission is thwarted by Kate Nelligan, the frustrated wife of paralyzed RAF commander Christopher Cazenove. Though having fallen in love with Sutherland, Nelligan nonetheless prepares to turn the man in when he kills her husband. Tension mounts in the closing scene as Sutherland races against time to (a) make contact with the U-boat and (b) stop Nelligan before she blows the whistle on him.
8. Ike: Countdown to D-Day (2004) (TV movie) IMDB – 7.2
Cast
Starring: Tom Selleck, Timothy Bottoms, Gerald McRaney, James Remar, George Shevtsov, Ian Mune, Bruce Phillips
Film Synopsis
Tom Selleck stars as General Dwight D. Eisenhower in the television film Ike: Countdown to D-Day. The film follows the General in the three months leading up to the decisive invasion that would turn the tide of World War II toward the Allied powers. The film opens with Winston Churchill (Ian Mune) appointing Eisenhower as the Supreme Allied Commander. Ike faces conflicts with British General Montgomery (Bruce Phillips), American General George Patton (Gerald McRaney), and French leader Charles de Gaulle (George Shevtsov). Eisenhower must balance these men’s egos as he organizes the risky but necessary military maneuver.
7. The Big Red One (1980) IMDB – 7.3
Cast
Starring: Lee Marvin, Mark Hamill, Robert Carradine, Bobby Di Cicco, Stephane Audran, Kelly Ward
Film Synopsis
Samuel Fuller’s valedictory war picture, The Big Red One follows the First Infantry Division from Africa to Europe during the years 1942 through 1945. Lee Marvin portrays the division sergeant; he’s tough and experienced, to be sure, but he takes on his job with cool professionalism rather than Hollywood bravado. Based on Fuller’s own experiences, the film is a loosely constructed series of anecdotes. Among them are an insane asylum under bombardment while the inmates applaud and a climactic vignette in which a very young concentration camp internee dies while a friendly soldier plays piggy-back with the boy.
6. Overlord (1975) IMDB – 7.3
Cast
Starring: Brian Stirner, Davyd Harries, Nicholas Ball, Julie Neesam, Sam Sewall
Film Synopsis
Generous doses of newsreel footage highlight this British wartime drama. Tom (Brian Stirner) is a typical 18-year-old Briton who goes into military service early in 1944. The film follows the protagonist through the rigors of training and the shock of his first battle.
5. The Americanization of Emily (1964) IMDB – 7.4
Cast
Starring: James Garner, Julie Andrews, Melvyn Douglas, James Coburn, Joyce Grenfell, Edwards Binns
Film Synopsis
The lively but somehow slightly distasteful The Americanization of Emily stars James Garner as a WWII naval officer who happens to be a craven coward. While his comrades sail off to their deaths, Garner makes himself scarce, generally hiding out in the London flat of his lothario navy buddy James Coburn. Garner falls in love with virtuous war widow Julie Andrews (the “Emily” of the title), but she can’t abide his yellow streak. Meanwhile, crack-brained admiral Melvyn Douglas decides that he needs a hero–the first man to die on Omaha Beach during the D-Day Invasion. Coburn is at first elected for this sacrifice, but it is the quivering Garner who ends up hitting the beach. He survives to become a hero in spite of himself, winning Andrews in the process. Paddy Chayefsky’s script, based on the novel by William Bradford Huie, attempts to extract humor out of the horrors of war by using broad, vulgar comedy instead of the light satirical touch that would seem to be called for. Americanization of Emily was Julie Andrews’ second film; it should have led to a steady stream of adult-oriented roles, but the box-office clout of Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music consigned her to “wholesome family entertainment”.
4. Where Eagles Dare (1969) IMDb – 7.7
Cast
Starring: Richard Burton, Clint Eastwood, Mary Ure, Michael Hordern, Patrick Wymark, Ingrid Pitt, Robert Beatty
Film Synopsis
An expensive but enormously profitable war picture, Where Eagles Dare centers upon a daring rescue and even more daring escape. Disguised as Nazi officers, commandoes Maj. John Smith (Richard Burton), Lt. Morris Schaffer Clint Eastwood and six other courageous souls parachute behind enemy lines. Their mission: to rescue an American general, held captive in a supposedly impenetrable Alpine castle. Aiding and abetting the commandoes are Allied undercover agents Mary (Mary Ure) and Heidi (Ingrid Pitt). Also on hand is a British officer (Patrick Wymark), who masterminded the mission. Somewhere, somehow, someone amongst the Allies is going to turn out to be a traitor. There’s also a neat plot twist in store when the commandoes manage to reach the American general — which leads to yet another twist. The vertigo-inducing climax has made Where Eagles Dare one of the most sought-after of “early” Eastwood starring features. The film was written directly for the screen by espionage novelist Alistair MacLean.
3. The Longest Day (1962) IMDB – 7.8
Cast
Starring: John Wayne, Robert Mitchum, Henry Fonda, Robert Ryan, Rod Steiger, Richard Todd
Film Synopsis
The Longest Day is a mammoth, all-star re-creation of the D-Day invasion, personally orchestrated by Darryl F. Zanuck. Whenever possible, the original locations were utilized, and an all-star international cast impersonates the people involved, from high-ranking officials to ordinary GIs. Each actor speaks in his or her native language with subtitles translating for the benefit of the audience (alternate “takes” were made of each scene with the foreign actors speaking English, but these were seen only during the first network telecast of the film in 1972). Paul Anka, who wrote the film’s title song, shows up as an Army private. Scenes include the Allies parachuting into Ste. Mere Englise, where the paratroopers were mowed down by German bullets; a real-life sequence wherein the German and Allied troops unwittingly march side by side in the dark of night; and a spectacular three-minute overhead shot of the troops fighting and dying in the streets of Quistreham. The last major black-and-white road-show attraction, The Longest Day made millions, enough to recoup some of the cost of 20th Century Fox’s concurrently produced Cleopatra.
2. Saving Private Ryan (1998) IMDB – 8.6
Cast
Starring: Tom Hanks, Edward Burns, Matt Damon, Harve Presnell, Jeremy Davis, Tom Sizemore, Adam Goldberg, Vin Diesel
Film Synopsis
Steven Spielberg directed this powerful, realistic re-creation of WWII’s D-day invasion and the immediate aftermath. The story opens with a prologue in which a veteran brings his family to the American cemetery at Normandy, and a flashback then joins Capt. John Miller (Tom Hanks) and GIs in a landing craft making the June 6, 1944, approach to Omaha Beach to face devastating German artillery fire. This mass slaughter of American soldiers is depicted in a compelling, unforgettable 24-minute sequence. Miller’s men slowly move forward to finally take a concrete pillbox. On the beach littered with bodies is one with the name “Ryan” stenciled on his backpack. Army Chief of Staff Gen. George C. Marshall (Harve Presnell), learning that three Ryan brothers from the same family have all been killed in a single week, requests that the surviving brother, Pvt. James Ryan (Matt Damon), be located and brought back to the United States. Capt. Miller gets the assignment, and he chooses a translator, Cpl. Upham (Jeremy Davis), skilled in language but not in combat, to join his squad of right-hand man Sgt. Horvath (Tom Sizemore), plus privates Mellish (Adam Goldberg), Medic Wade (Giovanni Ribisi), cynical Reiben (Edward Burns) from Brooklyn, Italian-American Caparzo (Vin Diesel), and religious Southerner Jackson (Barry Pepper), an ace sharpshooter who calls on the Lord while taking aim. Having previously experienced action in Italy and North Africa, the close-knit squad sets out through areas still thick with Nazis. After they lose one man in a skirmish at a bombed village, some in the group begin to question the logic of losing more lives to save a single soldier. The film’s historical consultant is Stephen E. Ambrose, and the incident is based on a true occurance in Ambrose’s 1994 bestseller D-Day: June 6, 1944.
1. Band of Brothers (2001) (TV mini-series) IMDB – 9.6
Cast
Starring: Scott Grimes, Matthew Leitch, Damian Lewis, Ron Livingston, Shane Taylor, Donnie Wahlberg, Peter Youngblood Hills, Rick Gomez, and many more.
TV Series Synopsis
Though it’s not necessarily a film, this epic mini-series Band of Brothers, produced by Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg, is one of the greatest programs ever made about D-Day. Therefore, it must be included (you can thank us later). It is the story of “E” Easy Company, 506th Regiment of the US Army 101st Airborne Division and their mission in WWII Europe from Operation Overlord through V-J Day. A fascinating tale of comradeship that is, in the end, a tale of ordinary men who did extraordinary things.