In the opening scene of the Longest Day you enter onto Omaha Beach at 06:32 hours (whilst Beethoven’s 5th Symphony plays in the background symbolising freedom as the story behind the music is good versus evil) with a Long Shot of the beach in screen and a nice sea view. You then focus in on the Germans talking amongst themselves (in german) inside their bunkers. General Pluskat decides to take a glance at the horizon through his telescope. He sees the silhouette of thousands of British battleships slowly coming into his view. “Invasion” he screams.
In a nearby home a French citizen frantically rejoices by waving his flag as the French, Americans and the British had come to set him and others like him free from evil the grip of the Germans.
This was trepidation for the Germans, they knew there was a battle on their hands and they were ready for it.
As Saving Private Ryan commences we can see the soldiers of this specific boat are ready to arrive at Omaha and the hero (Tom Hanks) is portrayed as being very scared as the camera is zoomed in on his trembling hands.
They all start to vomit in a row as the camera moves from the front to the back of the boat. We then see Tom Hanks again in a full body angle.
He starts to open his flask and takes a big swig of his drink not bothering whether he spills any, he seems to be filled with a lot of fear. Also some of the soldiers are praying to God and kissing crosses etc.
This is much different compared to The Longest Day because whilst these soldiers are in their boats the men are not scared at all.
This is summarised by Robert Mitchum shouting “There it is men, Omaha beach, dead ahead”. He is filled with confidence and is standing proud.
They all seem proud to be fighting for America. Also everything looks a lot cleaner e.g. the soldiers.
The action starts when the two films begin to land on the beach.
In SPR they are immediately confronted with a bombardment of machine gun fire. The camera is situated behind all the soldiers on the same boat, You can hear the bullets hit the metal of the boats and the Anti-tank instalments on the beach. Also you can hear flesh being pierced and screams of pain before people have even reached the beach at all.
Back to The Longest Day and the soldiers are safely leaving the boats and heading for the land. They casually stroll up to the beach lead by the hero Robert Mitchum in a typical arrogant style.
In SPR some of the soldiers are forced to jump out of the sides of the boats and into the sea, where some of the soldiers struggle to stay afloat. Quite a few drown but the majority break free from the heavy equipment and survive to fight on. Whilst we are underwater the sound is sort if muted and blurred as if we were under there with them.
You can see bullets entering the water and some hit the soldiers causing them to die.
The beach on The Longest Day is much calmer as they start to run across the sand. We see the from a side view where Large unimpressive explosions occur, some landing on the soldiers causing the men to pathetically fall over pretending to die. This is poor quality and has hardly any sound effects.
In SPR there is a feeling of complete fear and panic as loads of men are killed realistically from bullets and bombs, screaming and shouting never ceases and blood is already everywhere and is in the sea too.
Occasionally blood splatters on the lenses creating a real involvement with the film. This is nothing like The Longest Day as there are no apparent shots fired onto anyone’s body. I assumed this because there is no blood is used and if so cannot be seen. As they run up the beach again the director uses a tracking shot, following the soldiers up the beach, some die but some make it all the way to the top of the beach.
Back to SPR, whilst they are on the beach Tom Hanks says very loudly “Who is in charge?”, not knowing that he was the one in charge as the soldiers above him in the rankings who were suppose to control this situation had already been killed on the boats.
This brought the realisation of what he had to endure to survive and win. At this point his hearing cuts out as he looks around him at the terrible sites happening for example a man with no arm is lying down in pain, there is a boat and all its men on fire and some young soldiers crying in these terrifying circumstances.
The camera zooms in close as he shakes his head and his normal hearing resumes. He can know hear his instructions and everything that was happening around him is still there.
It’s a completely different story in The Longest Day as when they get to the other side the main character confronts a young soldier, who accidentally had dropped his gun whilst scrambling to survive.
He tells him you’ll be needing that so the young man rushes back to get it as the Hero chuckles in complete confidence, knowing that he definitely wont die. The complete opposite is happening in SPR as the camera is in a midst with the action almost as if someone is holding a camcorder recording the war as it unfolds. At various moments this camera stops and looks around and moves into different angles and positions bringing in lots of situations into the equation. There is a man with all his guts hanging out screaming, this is quite disturbing.
Also nearby there are soldiers being operated on being told it will be alright when clearly it wont. Unfortunately some soldiers are shot whilst being operated on by the constant german machine gun fire.
There are on good effects like these in The Longest Day, you can tell that it is old as the Americans are always being made to look as major heroes and are never made to look fearful or week. As they continue up the beach (in SPR) the fear can always be felt but no so much in The Longest Day.
I believe that the Director for Saving Private Ryan did very well indeed to capture this moment in his own style.
Both films won many deserved awards. The Longest Day would have been an even greater film in its day but today we can just look back on it and see how much we have improved cinematics and enjoy our progress. I think Saving Private Ryan epitomises great films of the 21st Century and The Longest Day will always be remembered for its efforts to make the war effort never be forgotten.
