5 war films for the anniversary of the Normandy landings

June 6, 1944 was the so-called D-Day, when the Allies landed in Normandy and under the command of General Dwight D. Eisenhower the liberation of France and then the rest of Western Europe began from Nazi rule. The event appears in countless war films, now on its 80th anniversary here are five films about D-Day that are definitely worth seeing.

D-Day the Sixth of June (1956)

A film about D-Day could not have a clearer title than this. The film is based on the novel by Canadian author Lionel Shapiro

centered on a love triangle,

which is interwoven between an American and a British officer and a member of the Auxiliary Territorial Service (the latter the women’s branch of the British Army was during the Second World War). The two officers are members of Special Force Six, which a fictitious Anglo-American unit, which, according to the story, played a significant role in the Normandy landings.

The Longest Day (1962)

Until Saving Private Ryan aired in 1998,

The longest day was “the D-day movie”.

In the film based on the book by Cornelius Ryan starring such period stars as Richard Burton, Robert Mitchum, Sean Connery and John Wayne. The longest day focuses specifically on June 6 and is almost as grandiose as the landing itself.

The film also features the real D-Day veteran Richard Todd, who parachuted into Normandy on June 6, 1944.

Overlord (1975)

The title of the movie covers the official military name of the Battle of Normandy, Operation Overlord, and a rather unusual and mysterious film. Directed by Stuart Cooper

follows a guy named Tom from civilian life through enlistment to D-Day.

But this is not a celebration of glorious exploits: it is a sad and gloomy story about loss. The fictional film is complemented by real, contemporary footage.

Saving Private Ryan (1998)

Steven Spielberg’s five Oscar-winning films probably need no introduction to anyone. In the movie starring Tom Hanks a handful of soldiers embark on a special mission: a paratrooper, the titular Private Ryan (Matt Damon), must be brought out from behind the front lines, who, after three of his brothers died on the battlefield, has been granted leave by the army’s top management.

The opening scene of the film brings to life the horror of the Normandy landings.

Michael Caine’s last film centers on a real person, Bernard Jordan, a Royal Navy veteran who

In June 2014, she escaped from a nursing home to attend the 70th anniversary of the Normandy landings.

The Great Escaper at once elegiac and nostalgic: it shows veterans’ attachment to the past and their buried traumas.

(via The Conversation, TimeOut)