Review of The Longest Day

First a correction in the credits, Red Buttons was Private Dutch Schultz, who gets caught on the steeple in the French Town of St. Mere-Eglise. Second one comment refers to John Wayne as a Captain, he was Lt. Colonel Benjamin Vandervroot, a battalion commander with the 82nd Airborne Division. This ensemble movie is a classic and inspiring story of D-Day. It successfully conveys the fog of war. It also shows that the most carefully planned battle still must rely on rapid improvisation. The production values are outstanding and as I write this comment, I feel myself on the Orne River Bridge with the British Glider forces and hear the bagpipes in the distance which means Lord Lovat and the commandos are near by to relive the company of glider-troops who must "Hold the Bridge, until Relieved." Private Ryan was the war on the level of the patrol, The longest day included the Invasion of Normandy from the individual service man to the memebers of the High Command on both sides.