[Film Critic] When we talk about war films, what are we talking about?

Ernestine 2021-12-22 08:01:08

June 6, 1944 "This will be the longest day for both the Allies and us."

――German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel

First of all, let’s take a look at the "classic" TV series " Anti-Japanese Strange Man ". This TV series claims to have an investment of close to 500 million yuan. It is produced by a professional team in the United States. The money is used for charity.

This TV series tells about the deeds of four knights with unique skills who used high-powered martial arts to fight against Japan and save the country. Seeing this, I have already begun to be a little bit bloody. It can be basically confirmed that these four are extremely high-positioned, and they are knights who have reached the level of superheroes.

The classic scene of the shredded devil

The scene of tearing the devils by hand is convincing. The living person is torn into two pieces. The blood is extremely bloody. The Internet jokingly claims that the characters in the play are not only the devils, but also the audience’s IQ, which also affects the audience’s IQ. Torn into two pieces.

This kind of film that fools the audience can't be called a war film at all. It neither shows objective history, nor does it show real unspeakable emotional changes. It just stands at a very low level to blame. Elevating the other side, it looks funny.

This is why it is difficult to make war films. Being able to deal with a cruel and bloody history objectively is the basic quality for shooting war-themed film and television works.

In contrast, "The Longest Day" appears to be a high-end atmosphere. Talking about a Normandy landing, switching the narrative from the perspective of the German, Allied and French resistance forces, the film’s grand layout and grandeur are remarkable. The inscriptions of figures such as decision-making generals and landing soldiers are also vivid and profound. You can't see slander and deliberateness, it can be said to be an artistic historical story.

The purpose of the production of this film is to restore the intense and brutal war on the first day of Normandy’s landing. I have to say that I admire this historical production attitude. This documentary film was shot less than two decades after World War II. , It's like an epic existence.

It can be said that the restoring degree of the subsequent movies of World War II is unattainable, and the weapons and equipment in it make people intuitively see the true face of history.

Eisenhower, as the supreme commander of the miracle of the Normandy landing, completed the most splendid war work of his life with his extraordinary organization and coordination ability.

Eisenhower

And Rommel was unfortunately a supporting role in this drama. Although he expected that the attack point might be Normandy, he would rather believe that it was in Calais, and expected that the Allied forces would not land before mid-June, so on June 5th, he rushed home to be his wife on June 6th birthday. Birthday. This decision changed the course of history, and Rommel lost his life three months later.

Rommel

The casting of the movie is not a random star. The actor who played Major John Howard in "The Longest Day" actually participated in the Normandy landing. At that time, he was the 7th Battalion of the 5th Paratrooper Brigade of the British 6th Airborne Division. Captain, his troops participated in reinforcement operations for the Normandy landing.

Choosing characters who have actually experienced World War II to participate in the movie can provide the director with more creative inspiration and strengthen the audience's resonance.

Perhaps it is this production attitude of excellence that has allowed the 20th Century Fox Film Company to continue to grow and grow, and it is today one of the world's leading film giants.

To be honest, there are a lot of war films now, but how many are worth recollecting again and again? Most of them are formal and sensational.

What really shines and dazzles over time is not "hand-teared devil" works that are made entirely on their own, but works that really create value. "The Longest Day" commendably shows the irony of war in its lines, which is the emotion that war films most need to convey.

"It’s funny, isn’t it? He’s dead, I’m lame, you’re lost, I guess it’s always been like this, I mean war." Something, an evaluation of war.

War-themed movies make us feel the cruel and bloody years, the era of heroes, and the time of broken body and mind. A war story composed of small characters sometimes sounds like unattainable history.

Normandy Landing

We watch war movies and other movies. We look for time and history in movies, and even long to see our path forward. Sometimes watching a good movie is like finding a good mentor, the same thing as reading a good book. Abbas Kiarostami said: “There was a movie that made me fall asleep in the theater, but it was the same movie that kept me awake at night, thinking about it until dawn, and even thinking about it for a few weeks. This is Movies I like."

The reason why "The Longest Day" was affirmed, and even enshrined, is because its rhythm makes people feel just right, and it can be memorized over and over again. Documentary movies, such a style, are really precious.

View more about The Longest Day reviews

Extended Reading
  • Hilda 2022-04-23 07:02:33

    There is a long shot in the film that seems to have not been edited. It was rare to be able to shoot such a film at that time.

  • Uriel 2022-03-27 09:01:09

    Nice movie, nice scene

The Longest Day quotes

  • [to his generals, observing the English Channel]

    Field Marshal Erwin Rommel: Just look at it, gentlemen. How calm... how peaceful it is. A strip of water between England and the continent... between the Allies and us. But beyond that peaceful horizon... a monster waits. A coiled spring of men, ships, and planes... straining to be released against us. But, gentlemen, not a single Allied soldier shall reach the shore. Whenever and wherever this invasion may come, gentlemen... I shall destroy the enemy there, at the water's edge. Believe me, gentlemen, the first 24 hours of the invasion will be decisive. For the Allies as well as the Germans, it will be the longest day... The longest day.

  • [On whether to commence the Normandy invasion in marginal weather conditions]

    General Dwight D. Eisenhower: I'm quite positive we must give the order. I don't like it, but there it is. Gentlemen, I don't see how we can possibly do anything... but go.