It's forty years old now, so how about a new writeup?
The Longest Day, released in 1962, is considered one of the best epic war movies ever created. I say epic, because the it employed five different directors and runs about three hours. The cast includes such big names as John Wayne, Paul Anka, Sean Connery, Roddy McDowall, George Segal, Robert Wagner, Richard Burton, and Henry Fonda. Despite color technology being in existence, the movie's producers decided to film it in black and white, for that "historical" feel.
The film basically acts as a star-studded History Channel documentary. The movie covers every aspect of what happened on D-Day. Events concerning the French resistance, American paratroopers, German commanders, Allied commanders, British commandos, French special forces, and German defenders are all told as the story of the Normany invasion develops.
The Longest Day accurately portrays German commanders as intelligent, calculated military minds under the leadership of a madman (as opposed to cartoon characters under the leadership of a madman). Thankfully, the film also has German people speaking German and French people speaking French. The makers of the movie realized that subtitles were preferable to cheesy accents.
While the special effects in the film are obviously dated, and fallen soldiers all do the old "arch my back, make pained face, clutch my chest to make it look like I was hit" routine, the story itself is enough to keep you interested the entire three hours, that's for sure. Just remember that wooden, stoic acting was the norm back in those days. (If you've seen John Wayne, you know what I'm talking about).