John Wayne may have featured just slightly more than anyone else in this drama, but it's very much an ensemble effort that delivers a film with a great deal of authenticity to it. It's all set around the day of the D-Day landings in 1944. The weather on England's south coast was, in the words of their meteorologist, "akin to mid-winter". Delay meant more frustrations for everyone so off they go using just about every form of transportation available - gliders, planes, tanks, landing craft - you name it, as a quarter of a million men (plus lots of sparkling "Tommies") headed to Normandy. Meantime, we also see a fairly plausible perspective from the Nazi side of the channel. They've been preparing for an invasion for a while, but are unsure where and when it will come and the apprehension is beginning to take it toll. What's also clear is that the High Command are, themselves, losing faith with the battle tactics of the Bohemian corporal and much less afraid to let it be known. It's now that the story picks up the pace as troops land by sea and air and face the entrenched enemy who are determined to stop the establishment of a beach-head. With bullets flying and explosions everywhere the cinematography, stunt arranging and pyrotechnics really do give us a sense of the dangers the men faced trying to secure a few miles of sand. There's a lovely, short, cameo from Bourvil as the mayor of a small town so delighted to see them that he turns up, suitably sashed and armed with a bottle of champagne to celebrate as the shells drop all around them! Gert Fröbe also finds his milk round become just a touch too perilous too, allowing just a little humour to creep into the story of precision logistics that didn't always go to plan. It's effectively and tightly edited and the momentum drives itself as we see but this one day - no conclusions, not even the end of the end of the beginning. It's lengthy, but each beach has it's own story to tell and the four creative brains behind this project keep it enthralling, for the most part, for a watchable three hours of horror and hope.
