DVDFile

Thirty-seven years before Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg stormed Normandy, John Wayne led an all-star cast in what would essentially be the last of the great WWII epics (no offense to The Great Escape, which would bow a year later). The Longest Day is a sprawling, comprehensive look at that initial landing on the occupied beaches of France, told from the perspectives of nearly everybody involved.

The movie opens on a soldier's helmet upside down in the wet sand of an unknown (we assume French) beach. From there, the film begins to follow the preparations of each of the forces that will play central roles in the coming invasion: the Germans who steel themselves, building a formidable defense on the shores; the French resistance, conspiring to weaken the Germans defense from the inside; the US forces, hoping to find strength in numbers; and the British paratroopers, who will be diving into the middle of hell itself.

Despite the film's daunting 178-minute length, much of it holds up well. The intricate strategies employed by each side keep the narrative moving while the battles are staged with an eye for detail. The film also boasts some fine performances from its seemingly endless list of stars, including John Wayne, Richard Burton, Sean Connery, Rod Steiger and Robert Mitchum. The movie also garnered several Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture (which it lost to Lawrence of Arabia--when will we see that on DVD?!?) and Best Black and White Cinematography (which it won, and deservedly so).

If the film has a flaw, its the fact that its a little too epic. The movie cant possibly hold the wealth of material it tries to, and, inevitably, lags in places as the story tries to fill in the gaps. Certain stories, which are sometimes more interesting, end up getting lost among the film's favorites, which frequently don't amount to much. The movie would have been better served by focusing on one (or even two) groups and fleshing out their story rather than trying to tell everybody's. This is a small complaint given the film's mammoth accomplishments, but a troubling one nonetheless.

Video: Doing Justice to the Cinematography

The image on the latest DVD incarnation of The Longest Day is presented 4:3 widescreen at a ratio of 2.40:1. The Longest Day was shot extremely wide (theatrically presented at 2.50:1), and the image here preserves the majority of that original framing and doing much to maintain the integrity of the film's award-winning cinematography. Presented entirely in black and white, the picture exhibits good contrast and shadow delineation. Blacks are deep and solid while shadow detail is generally preserved. The image does suffer from frequently soft edges which give the overall picture a slightly blurred look. This problem is more apparent in darkly lit interiors and the night shots. The film is surprisingly free of artifacts and exhibits a much more detailed image than the previously released laserdisc.

Audio: When is Surround Not Really Surround...

The film's soundtrack, originally presented in Mono, is here presented in the viewer's choice of Dolby Surround or 5.0 Surround. Unfortunately, neither track exhibits much spatial character beyond pushing the music wider and deeper. Spatial integration is nonexistent with dialogue being overly forward that sounds particularly thin and strident on the Dolby Surround channel. The 5.0 track sounds only slightly better, adding more bass for a more even soundtrack. What little stereo/surround information there is sounds manufactured and jarringly out of place. At best, the audio channels presented here are barely acceptable.

Supplements: What Goodies Are There?

To put it bluntly, there are none. Well, the trailer is there, as well as the trailers for Patton and Tora, Tora, Tora (hmmm, do I see a theme?), but beyond that lies pretty slim pickings indeed. Aside from the previously mentioned English tracks, there is also a French Dolby Surround track, along with English Closed Captioning, English Subtitles and Spanish subtitles.

A brief comment on chapters:

The Army of Darkness Special Edition averages 3:45 per chapter (86 minutes with 23 chapters); Thunderball (the latest special edition release) averages 2:30; even Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation, a movie that barely deserves a DVD (much less abundant chapter stops) averages 3:30 per chapter. So why are there only 12 chapters on The Longest Day, a 178-minute film with multiple storylines? This is perhaps the longest per chapter average I've seen on any DVD (a whopping 15 minutes per chapter).

What only adds to the frustration is that some of the chapters are barely 5 minutes long, meaning that some (most notably chapter 5) cover over an hour!! Now this may sound petty, but more frequent chapter stops are more than just a mere convenience. They provide easy access to key scenes, handy stopping points for fridge breaks or screaming kids, and quick reference points for reviewers and film buffs. Then again, it may just be me.

Parting Thoughts

The Longest Day is definitely an intriguing film. Given its more than coincidental release alongside Saving Private Ryan, it serves as a nice counterpoint to Spielberg's stylistic revision. Though more could have been done with the sound, the picture is satisfying if not always razor sharp.

Comments (0)

Leave a comment

Title
Comment	smaller | bigger
Name
Email
	Add Comment