Longest Day-Special Edition (1962)

USA Today
"...The all-star DAY holds up as a respectable portrayal of the event..." 11/05/1999 p.6E

Total Film
"...John Sturges' robust POW actioner follows the template he set with THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN... .It's turns from Dickie Attenborough and David McCallum that provide the heart..." 07/01/2003 p.136

Uncut
"This stunningly realised 1962 restaging of D-Day is the last great war epic." 07/01/2004 p.142

Sight and Sound
"[I]t's hard not to admire the logistical ingenuity with which Darryl Zanuck put together a production of this size." 08/01/2004 p.77

Widescreen Review
"THE LONGEST DAY features a massive all-star cast in its re-creation of the Allied invasion at Normandy Beach during World War II." 06/01/2006 p.71

VideoHound's Golden Movie Retriever 8 of 10
The complete story of the D-Day landings at Normandy on June 6, 1944, as seen through the eyes of American, French, British and German participants. Exhaustively accurate details and extremely talented cast make this one of the all-time great Hollywood epic productions. The first of the big budget, all-star war productions
 
Movie & Video Guide 9 of 10
One of the last great epic WW2 films. Brilliant retelling of the Allied invasion of Normandy, complete with all-star international cast, re-creation of historical events on a grand scale; Oscar-winning special effects and cinematography. - Leonard Maltin
 
Variety 9 of 10
Darryl F. Zanuck achieves a solid and stunning war epic. From personal vignettes to big battles, it details the first day of the D-Day Landings by the Allies on 6 June 1944...The savage fury and sound of war are ably caught on film. It emerges as a sort of grand scale semi-fictionalized documentary concerning the overall logistics needed for this incredible invasion. It carries its three hour length by the sheer tingle of the masses of manpower in action, peppered with little ironic, sad, silly actions that all add up to war...The use of over 43 actual star names in bit and pivotal spots helps keep up the aura of fictionalized documentary. But it is the action, time and place, and the actual machinery of war, that are the things...The battles [coordinated by associate producer Elmo Williams] ably take their places among some of the best ever put on the screen. A German strafing the beach, Yanks scaling a treacherous cliff only to find that there was no big gun there, British commandos taking a bridge, Yanks blowing up a big bunker, the French taking a town, all are done with massive pungent action. The black and white and CinemaScope screen help keep the focus on surge and movement.
 
FilmsGraded.com 8 of 10
"The Longest Day" was a mammoth project dramatizing D-day, the Allied invasion of France. It was nearly three hours in length and with an enormous ensemble cast, all playing supporting roles. The production was very conscientious about realism: the actors were always of the same nationality as their characters, and spoke in their native languages, leading to a lot of subtitles translating French and German dialogue. The American role in the invasion is not exaggerated, and the German soldiers and officers are not portrayed as brutal stereotypes...The truth is, a great invasion makes for great drama, and with the attention to detail and production values of "The Longest Day", the film couldn't miss. Complaints that I have about the film are minor: strafing planes don't bother to make a second pass, it is implied that the Germans lost the war because unstable Hitler wouldn't release the Panzer tanks, and attempts at comic relief generally fall flat...The cast is so enormous that it is difficult to remember who is what. But it is fun playing "name the actor": heavyweights John Wayne, Robert Mitchum, Richard Burton, Sean Connery, Rod Steiger and Henry Fonda are easily spotted, as are middleweights such as Eddie Albert, Red Buttons, Roddy McDowell, Peter Lawford, George Segal and Jeffrey Hunter. - Brian Koller