Today is September 3, 2021. This is almost the third time I have watched this movie.
The first time I watched this movie should be in elementary or junior high school. I can’t remember exactly when it was. It’s about ten years away. I just remember that it was downloaded to MP4 for viewing at that time. At that time, because I was very interested in the battles related to the Allied landing in Normandy, under the cultural propaganda of the United Kingdom and the United States, I thought that the Allied forces were the main force in defeating the Germans during World War II, so I also watched "Saving Private Ryan" and "Brother Company" at the same time.
This film adopts a multi-angle narrative. There are too many images that impress me, which shocked me greatly. The American, British and Canadian soldiers in it speak English, the French speak French, and the German speak German. I think it’s true. It’s very real, and the roles of soldiers, officers and ordinary French people in it are very real. And the movie is black and white, and it has a historical heaviness in itself, and it feels like a documentary. At that time, I was still young, and the war films I usually watched were a bit more of the various anti-Japanese dramas on TV. In contrast, many people in anti-Japanese dramas spoke Chinese whether they were Chinese or not.
At the beginning of the film, there was a black screen, and only a thumping soundtrack of three shorts and one long rhythm was heard, which signaled the victory of the Allied forces. The picture gradually appeared, with a steel helmet on the beach. The film officially began. Before the war, there were judgments about the battle between the Allied and German forces, and the French resistance female fighters who rode bicycles to attract the attention of German soldiers.
From the perspective of allied officers: Many allied officers didn't know the news until the day before the operation. There seems to be an officer then US President Franklin - Roosevelt, one of the sons, he volunteered on the battlefield.
From the perspective of German military officers: Many German military officers made mistakes in their judgments. From various considerations, they believed that the Allied forces would launch a landing, but Normandy was the least likely location. Rommel bought a pair of shoes for his wife as a birthday gift. Unexpectedly, the Allies came and landed in Normandy on his wife's birthday. When the "invasion" started in the middle of the night, an officer went to the Führer to seek reinforcements from the armored forces, but was told that the Führer had taken a sedative and was sleeping. He would not wake up until 4 o'clock and could not disturb the Führer. The head of state was still angry after waking up, but he still did not send an armored unit. There was a group of German soldiers on the cliff by the sea. After the position was captured, they came out and surrendered. They were killed by an Allied soldier who could not understand German. A group of German troops marching to the front were strafed by two French fighter planes. The personnel were scattered and the vehicles exploded.
From the perspective of the Allied Airborne Troops: There are US paratroopers who are still playing cards and gambling the day before the landing, and they don't know that they will leave at night. After the start of the airborne, a group of paratroopers mistakenly landed in the center of a small town. Some soldiers fell into a well, some fell into a burning building, and some were hung on trees and telephone poles. Some of the soldiers hung on the wall of the clock tower, injured their legs, were trapped, and deafened their ears by the sound of the bell. Some soldiers were shot and killed by the Germans as soon as they landed or even in mid-air. But there are still many paratroopers successfully airborne in the wild. An army chaplain said that he had lost his tableware when he landed, so he went into the water to look for it, and a soldier was also helping him find it. There was even a small group of paratroopers passing by with the Germans, and neither side fired. After the paratroopers successfully landed, some officers sent people to take down the paratrooper corpses hanging from trees and telephone poles, and began to capture important targets. There was a battle in a small town. The film gave a 90-second long shot of aerial movement, which was completed in one go, showing the scene of the Allied forces launching an assault battle, which was extremely shocking. Then the two sides fell into a confrontation, and the French army occupied a building, but the casualties were high. A group of nuns from the monastery brought medicine kits and braved the war to heal the wounded. Finally, an Allied tank appeared and collapsed the building where the German army was.
Angle of the Allied Landing Forces: A large number of refusal horses were placed on the beach. Thousands of allied soldiers wearing helmets landed densely. Some soldiers were hit by stray bullets before disembarking, and some were hiding in refusal horses or Behind the hillside is unable to move forward, and there are soldiers with their backs facing the enemy and facing their comrades playing Irish bagpipes to boost morale. Soldiers who came ashore charged with artillery fire, but were also strafed by German fighters. An Allied engineer squad without a commander blasted the German defensive position. Another group of troops who landed from the cliff used rope hooks to hook the barbed wire and climbed up. A large number of landing soldiers were killed here. Some were hit by stray bullets, some were blown by grenades, and some fell because of the rope being cut while climbing. Down. When the tanks landed, one of the tanks broke down. A British officer holding a British bulldog said that his old grandmother often said that when the machine had a problem, he would beat it hard, and then beat it hard with her cane. After a little bit of the front cover, the engine that fired the tank was really able to start again. A war reporter borrowed a telegraph from the British officer, but the officer thought that he could not occupy resources at a critical time, so the reporter went back to discuss with his colleagues and decided to let the carrier pigeon pass the letter. Unexpectedly, the pigeon flew in the direction of the German army. Later, an Allied soldier shot and killed a German soldier. He motioned to his comrades beside him to take a look, but his comrades remained motionless and did not respond. Only then did he realize that his comrades had been killed.
From the perspective of ordinary people in France: A French aunt was frightened when the paratroopers landed. The paratroopers signaled her not to speak out and left immediately. There is also a middle-aged uncle who lives by the beach, who often pays attention to the battle. When he discovered the Allied forces were landing, he cheered and pulled out the French flag (not the pure white flag) hidden under the quilt. Even though the shell hit his house, he still stood by the window ecstatically. The Allied fleet was waving the national flag as it approached the coast. Later, he put on a hat that might be a symbol of the former French army, held a bottle of champagne, and cheered and congratulated the Allied soldiers in English.
At the end of the film, a U.S. paratrooper found the body of a German soldier and a wounded British pilot. The pilot borrowed a cigarette from the paratrooper and the two started talking. It turned out that this paratrooper should be a recruit. He had never killed the enemy, and after landing, he did not fire a single shot for various reasons. The fighter plane piloted by the pilot was shot down, his leg was injured, and a large opening from the hip to the knee was cracked. Medical soldiers came to sew the wound for him, but because the medical equipment was missing, he sewed it with a pin. The shoes on the feet of the German soldier's corpse were reversed, and the motorcycle he was driving fell down. He should have been in a hurry when he set off. He was killed by the pilot while checking the status of the pilot. The pilot said to the paratrooper: "It's funny, isn't it? He (Germany) is dead, I (Britain) is lame, and you (U.S.) are lost. I guess it has always been like this. I mean war." The paratrooper said: "I want to know who won." Then the screen turned, and the Allied forces successfully captured the beach, with a cheerful tune in the background. As an audience, I am also thinking about whether there is a winner in the war. But I can't get the answer, I only know that the war is really cruel.
Although the film is black and white, and the duration is close to three hours, it does not seem to be boring. On the contrary, the more I watch it, the more I want to continue watching, because every character in it is a real and vivid image, including soldiers on either side. And generals. There are indeed several color versions, and the movie channel has also aired one of them and dubbed it in Mandarin. But these color editions are not recommended to watch, because these color editions have been cut to varying degrees on the basis of the original edition. The original version should be a 2.35:1 widescreen ratio. The color version is directly and roughly cut into various ratios such as 1.2:1, 1.3:1, 1.5:1, and 1.8:1. Compared with the original version, it loses a lot of horizontal and vertical directions. The content is only about 540P at the highest resolution. Personal guess is to adapt to the Pan & Scan broadcast on the previous color TV, so it is not recommended to watch.
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