The Longest Day

This recent D-Day DVD reissue of The Longest Day is the same two disc set that was issued two years ago, containing the same widescreen transfer and surround mix. And as such, it shares the same problems.

I was fairly unimpressed with the video transfer. It has been transferred from a print with a fair amount of damage, hairs and scratches, both from mishandling of duplication negative and interpositive used for telecine. The white and black marks on the resultant video transfer reveal this damage. This can be cleaned digitally, but it's expensive and was probably not thought to be worth the effort. The image on this disc is presented in approximately 2.40:1 anamorphic widescreen, and it appears to be decidedly soft, almost blurred, particularly edges of objects. The black-and-white photography is presented adaquately with a good greyscale contrast and the blacks are very good and solid. It's a servicable transfer, but for 20th Century Fox's legendary Zanuck's crown jewel, I expected more.

The audio is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 surround, and is a servicable, if far from outstanding, audio presentation. The music has good presence in the mix and dynamic range is generally tight, although expanded when needs be for the remastering effort, for when explosions hit and suchlike.

Dialogue is intelligable. The main trouble with the remix is that there's no real effort made for a soundstage, rather re-mixing the film as multi-channel mono, with sound effects ping-ponging around the speakers. It's jarring and artificial, really. I think I'd have preferred to have the original soundtrack restored and presented free of hiss, pops and clicks, than this half-hearted remix job.

The second disc contains the special features.

First up is a 23 minute documentary made for television and it's an interesting history lesson in the political stirrups of 20th Century Fox at the time. Essentially, Cleopatra had gone disastrously over budget and Darryl F. Zanuck started making The Longest Day with $8 million in the kitty. Eventially, he payed for the remainder out of his own pocket, in order to finish the job. The film went on to save Fox, bringing it out of the red and away from bankruptcy. As with Star Wars, it revitalised the studio and forged a direction for big budget war epics. The documentary is presented, as on television, with ad-break setups.

Then comes a near feature-length (57 minutes) documentary, hosted and narrated by Zanuck. It's a travelogue of various places where the events of The Longest Day occurred, interleaved with incidents from the movie. Zanuck's thick, nasal voice is near impossible to listen to for an extended period, but the film is an interesting vision of the means in which time heals all wounds. A family having a picnic in an enormous bomb crater, as Zanuck towers over them, is a particularly good image.

Finally, there are trailers for Patton, The Longest Day, Tora! Tora! Tora! and The Thin Red Line, presented in Dolby 2.0 and non-anamorphic widescreen.