Cult films, award-winning books and video games with global success: epic and extraordinary, the Allied Landing in Normandy on June 6, 1944 has fascinated creators around the world. Overview, 80 years after D-Day.
Constantly looking for great spectacle for its blockbusters, Hollywood has never stopped drawing on the history of the Landings, sometimes taking liberties with the events.
1 FILMS AND SERIES
“The Longest Day” (1962) by Darryl Zanuck
Adapted from the book of the same name by Cornelius Ryan, published in 1959, this film is the first feature film about the Normandy landings. A film with a cast American legend John Wayne. The longest day traces the preparations and the progress in its chronology of the Landing in Normandy, June 6, 1944. If it pays tribute to the victors, theThis film offers the different points of view of the Allies, the Germans, and even the Resistance…
“Saving Private Ryan”, by Steven Spielberg (1998)
More than 35 years later, will come the reference film, by Steven Spielberg, which will be released in 300 French theaters on June 6. Unabashedly crude, the feature film received five Oscars and was a huge commercial success.
“Band of Brothers”, by Steven Spielberg (2001)
This 10-episode series co-created with Tom Hanks goes beyond the sole subject of the Landings and offers a fresco on the Second World War through the destiny of a company of the American army.
“Beyond Glory” (The Big Red One) by Samuel Fuller (1980)
Four young soldiers, Griff, Vinci, Zab and Johnson join the first American infantry division, the “Big Red One”. Led by Sergeant Possum, these soldiers travel the globe to fight in the name of their homeland, ranging from North Africa to Nazi Germany. But on the battlefield, the horrors of war leave a lasting mark on these men.
“A Monkey in Winter” by Henri Verneuil (1962)
French cinema has also taken up the subject. From the 1960s, with this film by Henri Verneuil with Jean Gabin and Jean-Paul Belmondo, dialogues by Michel Audiard. The hotelier of a small seaside resort in Normandy has sworn to his wife never to touch a glass of alcohol again. This was without taking into account the arrival of Fouquet who appeared with temptation… The Landing is here a pretext to tell a story of friendship between two men, played by two sacred monsters of French cinema.
“The Atlantic Wall” by Marcel Camus (1970)
A Norman restaurateur (Bourvil) Léon Duchemin runs a restaurant with his sister. His clients are as much German, resistance fighters as traffickers. Léon despite himself becomes a resistance fighter when a downed RAF pilot finds refuge at his home and when he steals the plans for his V1 missiles from Hitler’s services.
“Women in the shadows”, by Jean Paul Salomé (2008)
This film by Jean-Paul Salome returns to the Landing through the story of resistance fighters. Engaged in the French Resistance, Louise fled to London after the assassination of her husband. She is recruited by the SOE, a secret intelligence and sabotage service led by Churchill. In an emergency, he is entrusted with his first mission, the exfiltration of a British agent who fell into the hands of the Germans while he was preparing the landing on the Normandy beaches. The man hasn’t spoken yet but time is running out.
2 VIDEO GAMES
“Medal of Honor: Allied Landings” and “On the Front Line” (2002)
It was Steven Spielberg, again, who, although more indirectly than in the cinema, brought the first realistic representation of the Normandy Landings to video games. Third episode of a saga launched in 1999 at the instigation of the American director, but for which he transferred the rights from the second opus, Medal of Honor: Allied landing marked many players when it was released in 2002. Another Medal of Honor, In the first line sends players to the beaches of Normandy as a warm-up. “The loans from Private Ryan are evident, both in terms of the colorimetry of the image, tending towards grey-blue, and in sequences taken from the film.notes Romain Vincent, history professor in the Paris region and creator of the “Video Games and History” channel on YouTube.
“Operation Overlord”
Everyone will remember the mission for a long time Operation Overlordwhich allows you to play for the first time an American soldier landing under bullets on Omaha Beach. “There are few games that leave you speechless and amazed”wrote journalist Dan Adams at the time in his test for the American site IGN, praising the graphic quality (for the time) of this reconstruction.
“Conker’s Bad Fur Day” (2001)
Some games have attempted parody, such as Conker’s Bad Fur Day (2001), which pits bloodthirsty squirrels and teddy bears in a gory and absurd version of the Landings.
“Worms 3D” (2003)
The military clashes represented by earthworms in Worms 3D.
3 BOOKS
“The Longest Day”, by Cornelius Ryan (1959)
It is this extremely documented book by the Irish-American journalist, which was the source of the 1962 film of the same name.
“When the sea recedes” by Armand Lanoux (1963)
Winner of the Goncourt Prize in 1963 In France, the novel recounts the return to the D-Day beaches of a Canadian veteran.
“Marie Joly”, by Jean-Luc Bizien (2004)
This novel evokes on the civilian side the difficult period of the end of the Occupation and the battles of the Liberation in Normandy.
“Robert Capa, the eye of June 6, 1944”, by Claude Quétel (2004)
During the landing on June 6, photographer Robert Capa was one of the rare press photographers present at Omaha Beach. He then worked for the American magazine life. Arrived there the same morning at 6:35 a.m.ith the first wave of assault. He then took the only photos of this historic moment. Alas, most of them will be stupidly lost and the remaining eleven will be veiled. These 11 clichés that have become cult are brought together in this book published in 2004.
“Of sand and steel, a new story of the Landings”, by Peter Caddick-Adams
LThe most comprehensive and documented history of D-Day ever published. This reference book, published in the spring, will be a landmark. The author relied on first-hand research, unpublished testimonies and in-depth knowledge of the archives delivering an exceptional panoramic account of this event.
“We were there”, by Annick Cojean (2024)
For the 80th anniversary of this event, new publications have emerged. In France, journalist Annick Cojean publishes 18 stories of actors of that day, military or civilian, collected in this work.
“Finding Alfie: A D-Day Story”, by Michael Morpurgo (2024)
In Great Britain, the writer Michael Morpurgo, whose work focuses almost exclusively on the two world conflicts, publishes this illustrated book.