Among the episodes of the Second World War, the landing in Normandy, also called D-Day, is one of the most legendary and represented by the cinema. That battle fought on June 6, 1944 on the beaches called Omaha and Utah from 156 000 men of four nations (USA, England, France and Canada), and which was the beginning of the Nazi defeat in Europe, cost the allies the loss of 7 844 among the dead, wounded and missing on the beaches, to which were added 3 799 among the dead, wounded and dispersed among the troops. AviotraSported. Already at the very moment in which it was fought, the battle was documented by the most Great directors of American cinema who were the troops: John Ford, George Stevens and Billy Wilder. The first spectacular film that tells the landing, was The longest day (1962) Based on the 1959 historical essay by Cornelius Ryan. Directed by five directors, deploy a stellar cast: John Wayne, Henry Fonda, Robert Mitchum, Richard Burton, Sean Connery.
A scene of “save the soldier Ryan”
The name chosen by Spielberg was an evident tribute to the historic Cornelius Ryan for the protagonist of his Kolossal Save the soldier Ryan (1988), aired tonight on Iris: 11 nominations and 6 Oscars, including the one for the direction. The long scene that opens the film and which describes precisely the moment of landing, in its crudeness and truthfulness is one of the most spectacular in the history of cinema. The starting point for the story narrated was born from another war episode. The screenwriter Robert Rodat at Putney Corners, New Hampshire, had seen a monument in memory of the fallen during different conflicts, from the American civil war to the Vietnam War. Rodat noticed the names of eight brothers who perished during the civil war. When he decided to write the story of a family destroyed by the war he chose to set it during the Second World War and It was inspired by the true story of the four Niland brotherstwo of whom died during the landing (a third believed dead there instead it was discovered that he was a prisoner in Burma) while the fourth brothers, Fritz, was returned to the United States.
Vira on the genre Spionaggio The last 36 hours (1964) by George Seaton, based on the story Beware of the dog by Roald Dahl, who participated in the Second World War in aviation and then became one of the most famous children’s writers. This is the plot: the major Jeff Pike (James Garner) participated in early June in the last briefing of General Eisenhower on the Normandy landing. Captured in Portugal, he is made to his awakening to be in post-war Germany of 1950, that he had been tortured and suffer from Amnesia. He begins to tell details of the invasion to the nurse Anna (Eva Marie Saint) and to Dr. Gerber (Rod Taylor), but when he realizes the trick, a personal challenge begins to escape and at the same time try not to reveal the details of the D-Day to the Germans.
Very little triumphalistic but very human Operation Overlord Directed by Stuart Cooper and winner of the silver bear at the Berlin Film Festival. The film recommends the D-Day following the fate of the young English soldier Tom Beddows (Brian Stmer). Called under the weapons in 1944, after escaping a bombing and returning to a destroyed London, risking a sentence as a deserter, is involved in the training in view of the landing in Normandy. During navigation he has premonitory nightmares: in fact, a few meters from the French beach, he is hit in the front and is the first victim of the great landing.
Based on his experience as a veteran of the Second World War THEl Great One Red (1980) by director Sam Fuller No Hollywood rhetoric in reconstructing the main war scenarios, from African deserts to Belgian forests, from Sicily to naturally the beaches of the Normandy. With Lee Marvin, Mark Hamill and Robert Carradine
For a curious and mysterious phenomenon in 2023, in view of the 80 years from the landing in Normandy, two English films were released both based on the true history of the veteran of the Second World War Bernie Jordan, known to the media with the nickname of “The great fugitive”, To have fled almost ninety years after a nursing home to return to the beach of the landing in Normandy. Escape to Normandy It is played by Michale Caine and Glenda Jackson in what was the last film appearance of the actress before dying. We are in Desser, 2014. Bernie Jordan is almost ninety years old and a great dream: that of attending the 70th anniversary of the Normandy landing, which he had participated as a young recruit in the Navy. Irene called Rene, his wife for 70 years, is sick and hospitalized in a nursing home where Bernie also decided to move so as not to stay away from her, even if he is still quite autonomous and independent. When he discovers that he has arrived too late to book the journey organized by the veterans of having to intend to participate in the celebrations of the D-Day, Bernie decides to leave alone, with the approval of kidney who does not feel the staff of the nursing home so that he does not prevent his husband from realizing his dream.
Similar story in The Last Rifustman – Return to Normandywhere they have changed the name to the character, who is called Artie Crawford (played by Pierce Brosnam aged artfully), the ceremony is for the 75th anniversary of the D-Day, and where the death of his wife, hospitalized in a north-north care house, is the spring that leads to the escape of the elderly.
