That was an excellent one.
Please don't spend money on this.
There is definitely an excellent idea hidden in the background of the film. Unfortunately, it's difficult to find it.
View MoreIt is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film
View MoreIt's hard for me to assign the "fair" number of stars to this film, but I settled on 8 because of its high production values and what was, in 1968, an innovative approach to the war film. Remember too that I haven't seen it since 1969. But it did make a strong impression.The Long Day's Dying must be one of the most vivid antiwar films ever made. It achieves this simply by portraying in extremely realistic terms the actions of a handful of soldiers in Northwestern Europe in 1944-45. No film before this one showed war at the infantry squad level with so much brutal detail, and all in a coldly dispassionate way that lets the actions speak for themselves. There is no preaching, no sentimentality, no comic relief, no complicated scenarios.Unfortunately, there's no subtlety either. Partly because of their situation - trying to stay alive - the characters come across as flat, familiar cliché's. As "entertainment," the film doesn't make it, though it was clearly not intended to "entertain." It was intended to slug you over the head with the misery and horror of World War II and modern war in general. This was twenty years before Platoon and thirty before Saving Private Ryan, both of which are far more "watchable" films. Here the flat and generally disagreeable characters, the lack of an actual plot, and the realistically unpleasant images (including what may be the first on-screen vomit in theatrical history) make the film hard to sit through, though it is only 95 minutes.So, 10 stars for production and realism, 4 stars for the feeling you'll have when it's over, a bonus star for having its heart in the right place. Average: 8.Like Carl Foreman's underrated "The Victors," an equally downbeat but more interesting and thought-provoking film, The Long Day's Dying seems not to be on DVD. Why not? Both films have been on cable a number of times.
View MoreSuperb film with no actual spoken dialogue which enhances the level of suspense. The whole approach gives a completely different twist to a war film.Well worth watching again if only it could be found. I saw it perhaps 20 or so years ago. - Fantastic!
View MoreThis movie depicts the fact that war has its own morality. It shows how enemy soldiers, when removed from the context of war, simply become human beings sharing common goals of survival. However, when they are placed back into war, they become deadly enemies again. These two scenarios(sharing common goals, and then attempting to kill each other), while diametrically opposed, morally speaking, are actually both moral in their own context. I feel that this is an excellent anti-war movie which attempts to show that war is a disease of humanity. When it occurs, it needs to be eliminated with the minimum effect on surrounding tissue(humanity) as soon as possible while trying to assure that it does not return.
View MoreSurprise, it was released on Historia (French counterpart of the History Channel) Of course it was dubbed in French, but it did not lose any of its suspense, almost claustrophobic atmosphere. The paratroopers were third-dimensional in character and even the German prisoner seemed believable ! Not the all good for our side and all bad for the enemy kind of script ! Excellent ! Would compete well with today's movies like Pearl Harbour, etc. etc. !
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