Review by Leonard Norwitz

 

Studio:

Theatrical: 20th Century Fox

Blu-ray: 20th Century Fox Pictures Home Entertainment

 

Disc:

Region: A

Runtime: 178 min

Chapters: 40

Size: 50/25

Case: Standard Blu-ray case: 2 discs

Release date: June 3, 2008

 

Video:

Aspect ratio: 2.35.:1

Resolution: 1080p

Video codec: AVC @ 23 MBPS

 

Audio:

English DTS HD 5.1 Master Lossless, English 4.0 Dolby Surround, Spanish & French Mono

 

Subtitles:

English, English SDH, Mandarin and Cantonese

 

Extras:

• Disc 1: Film Commentary by Director Ken Annakin

• Disc 1: Historical Commentary by Historian Mary Corey

• Disc 2: Featurettes:

• A Day to Remember

• Longest Day: A Salute to Courage

• AMC Backstory: The Longest Day

• Richard Zanuck on The Longest Day

• Documentary: D-Day Revisited

• Still Gallery

• Original Theatrical Trailer

 

 

The Film: 7.5
I suppose this is a Darryl F. Zanuck movie in much the same way as Gone With the Wind was David O. Selznick's. The director doesn't much matter. In this case, that goes triple, since there are in fact three directors: one for the "British Exterior Episodes" (Annakin), one for the "American Exterior Episodes" (Marton), and one for the "German Episodes" (Wicki). One wonders who directed the Allied "Interior Episodes"? In any case, Zannuck, who participated in the first world war in France and Belgium, wanted to recreate the Normandy Invasion in a quasi-documentary – but always faithful to the Hollywood idea of things. Thus, perhaps, its being filmed in black & white. Also, so that it could better mix with actual WWII documentary footage. Also, so that its many stars – so many that none are listed on the cover - could better blend into the action. A good choice all around.

I think The Longest Day has always been one of my guilty pleasures. I keep half-expecting Natalie Wood as a Belgian peasant girl to jump out of the bushes. John Wayne couldn't be more the icon, and Henry Fonda more out of place, plus more stars than Louis B. Mayer - put together! As mentioned, there are even three directors plus Zanuck and a coordinating producer, Elmo Williams. Yet somehow it all seems to work. Once things get underway, there is plenty of action and a few remarkable and complicated set pieces. Whatever the time of day, even if we can't see the faces, we always know who is who and what they're about. The German actors are my favorites: Hans Christian Blech, Curt Jürgens, Wolfgang Preiss, Paul Hartmann. And who said Crouching Tiger broke the subtitles barrier! This is a 3-hour movie where no small part of it is spoken in the language of those who murdered millions less than twenty years earlier – that's serious risk-taking on Zanuck's part. I think it paid off. That, and the intent – not so much to glorify, as to remember. And not only to remember, but to understand the cost. When this title arrives on shelves on Blu-ray, that day will have been almost exactly 64 years ago.

 

Image: 9 (5~9.5/10)
The score of 9 indicates a relative level of excellence compared to other Blu-ray DVDs on a ten-point scale. The score in parentheses represents: first, a value for the image in absolute terms; and, second, how that image compares to what I believe is the current best we can expect in the theatre.

There is a reach out-and-touch-it quality to the non-documentary image that should put to rest all those comments about how a movie's age relates its sharpness or resolution. If anything, the excellence of much of the film in these terms almost works against it on Blu-ray, since the real documentary footage incorporated into the action on occasion is necessarily less good.

It would have not been possible to predict just how good this image is from what Fox put out in their wretched 2-disc Collector's Edition. Even projected to a large screen of over 100 inches, there is a coherency, a tightness to the Blu-ray image that makes most color films look positively pixilated. Leather jackets shine, yet you can almost smell them. Same goes for the faces of the GI's. In shot after shot, contrast is wonderfully controlled. Blacks are deep, but never solidly so, nor should they be for a black & white movie, any more than there could be a true white – as opposed to color films, which do have true black and white capability. I'm afraid my screen caps do not do this movie justice.

One more observation about the Blu-ray as versus the SD Collector's Edition. I have included only one 3-frame screencap comparison, as it suffices to make the point. Note the soldier, holding a paper, in the background at the far left. Is it not clear that he is anamorphically challenged? And now that we see that, do we not see that the same is true for everyone else in the frame, though perhaps not to the same degree? This error did not exist on the previous letterboxed edition, shown zoomed out below it, and certainly not on the Blu-ray. I rest my case.

 

SD editions TOP 2 vs. Blu-ray - BOTTOM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Audio & Music: 7/9
I finally have what should be a pretty decent, though not entirely finalized, surround system in place. It has not yet been professionally calibrated. That may be a few weeks off, so regard my comments with this in mind – and if there is the need for qualification, I shall post in the Update section. In any case, I feel I am much closer to the intentions of the audio mix than ever before.

While I give the overall audio score only 7 points, the music track should rate 9-10 for audio excellence. The percussion, especially the crashing cymbals, over the titles will knock you
r proverbial socks off. The rest of the mix – the artillery and small arms fire, mainly – couldn't possibly live up to that level of contrast, nor does it – not in 1962.

 

Operations: 7
Major points for the art work for the main menu: As we get further from the time that The Longest Day commemorates, some things slip into the recesses of memory. It won't be much longer before there will be no one still alive who fought on either side on that day. The second disc contains all the bonus features other than the feature film commentaries. There is no pretense on this disc of anything other than your basic 480i.
 

Extras: 9
We may never see a Blu-ray movie about Operation Overlord on D-Day that has the breadth of these extra features. Sure, the second disc is entirely in 480i and tends to be repetitive in its praise of Zanuck, but much of its 3 hours is well positioned, especially the AMC Backstory: The Longest Day and The Longest Day: A Salute to Courage - and the two audio commentaries – one about the making of the movie, the other placing the events we see on film in their historical context – are very good indeed.

 

 

Bottom line: 9
On grounds of the image alone, this is a Must-Have DVD. The music score and extra features are just icing to the cake. Of course, it helps if you like the movie, as I do, but even if not, this is a super demo disc and an important historical document.

Leonard Norwitz
May 24, 2008