Film Analysis -- the Longest Essay

The multiple camera views include shots from inside the landing craft, from the beaches, facing the coastal defenses and also from the German perspective looking out at the largest invasion of land by sea in history featuring thousands of vessels and stretching further out to sea than the human eye could see (Katz, 2004).

Realism and Social Response and Political Influence

In general, the film depicted combat scenes as realistically as was considered acceptable by the standards of the day (Katz, 1991). Certainly, there is no comparison to the graphic images of human carnage depicted in later films such as Saving Private Ryan, but at the time, the depiction was highly realistic. Critics suggested that strafing fighter aircraft would have made multiple passes rather than the single passes depicted, but few viewers without military combat experience would have noticed. By far, the realism of using native French, German, and British actors speaking their native languages added tremendous authenticity to the film (Eberwein, 2004).

There was some negative response to the use of former members of the German military, but because the U.S. participation in World War Two was universally supported and not a controversial topic (like Vietnam), public response to the film was generally very positive and the film only served to honor the sacrifices of the soldiers involved in the D-Day landings (Eberwein, 2004).

References

Eberwein, R. (2004). The War Film.

Katz, S.D. (1991). Film Directing Shot by Shot: Visualizing from Concept…