D-Day The Sixth of June

Here I was preparing myself for 102 minutes of battle fuelled war epic as the opening sequences showed us soldiers being briefed before the landing at Normandy. Suddenly, two soldiers start reminiscing about this one girl and we get whisked away via flashback to a story that began two years ago in 1942. Here begins then the real story of this film; a romance between a married American and a betrothed English girl, whose fiancée is away being shot at somewhere else.

"Someday this army’s going to do something the hard way!"

Hesitant at first, this young lady Valerie (played by the stunning Dana Wynter) starts out as friends with American Brad before they fall in love and get carried away with their emotions. Soon, however, Brad is shipped off to Africa and for ten months they are apart whilst he tries to get back to England. Eventually succeeding, the lovers are reunited, but then Valerie’s guy comes home as well and things really get interesting. Cut back to the present as the ship is heading for Normandy. The two men in Valerie’s life suddenly meet for the first time, shortly before disembarking into that bloodiest of battles. More follows of course, but I don’t wish to give away who wins the war...

Getting to the end of the film, I was suddenly curious as to the title of the piece. This romantic entanglement barely makes reference to the D-Day assault, other than the premise that both men are heading for it and the final battle scenes at the end. I came to the conclusion that the title also refers to the meeting of these two fellas, both in love with the same girl, and the eventual collision of both on that fateful day in June 1944.

As a story it’s been well told and the characters are absorbing, as are their personal tales. We end up caring about them and the outcomes, though Valerie’s boyfriend, John the Green Beret, barely gets a look in as the story between the other two unfolds. I noted shades of the dreadful Pearl Harbor here, with its love triangle among the horror of war, but this feature kept me much more entranced than did the Bruckheimer melodrama of recent times. Coming from a time in which sexual relations were more alluded to than witnessed, the film maintains a family atmosphere to it, though I don’t imagine the kids would be all that keen to sit through it regardless of the final battle at Normandy.

Being presented in the full cinema aspect of 2.35:1 with 16:9 enhancement, D-Day looks pretty fantastic for a film its age (made in 1956). At times the transfer is too clean, making some special effects a little too visible (backgrounds that existed before being destroyed by bombing, for instance) but for the most part it’s fairly good. There are multiple instances of film artefacts and scratches and what have you, but these don’t impede on the movie too badly. Some outdoor scenes are a little scratched up too, compared to the rest of the film.

A bit of flickering occurs throughout, though not a great deal; whilst flesh tones, particularly on lead Robert Taylor, occasionally look a little waxy. Shadows are okay, although some dark areas are more dark grey than black and the blacks lose a little detail.

The first thing I noticed was how clear the voices are within this movie. Dana Wynter’s voice is strikingly clear and well spoken; perfect almost. The two male leads of Robert Taylor and Richard Todd both have internal monologues played aloud earlier on and these are slightly muffled by the very faint echo attached and took me a moment to figure they weren’t speaking them out loud.

During the heavy fighting scenes, which are only common to about 20 percent of the film if that, the gunfire is louder and tends to drown out the discussions going on, which doesn’t do anything to help us figure what’s going to happen. Large percentages of this gunfire are stock sound effects including my all time favourite; Bullet Ricochets Off Rock and Whines Away Into Distance. Yeah!

Music has been handled nicely and is well balanced and level with the rest of the soundtrack.

Just a Theatrical Trailer, though it is 2.35:1 and 16:9 enhanced, which came as a bit of a shock to me. It’s still a bit of an artefact-fest, but it’s a nice inclusion with its original aspect and all. Two minutes 15 in length.

Films that show the human side of war without feeling the need to include plenty of gratuitous violence are certainly a welcome change from the usual bloodletting we have thrust upon us. These days, however, we are getting a more mixed crop of films that include humanity and emotions as well as the grisly details of the results of combat (We Were Soldiers, Saving Private Ryan, The Thin Red Line etc). D-Day manages this in a different manner, using the ‘war at home’ as more its vehicle for the emotional stuff and the field war to garner the tension of the outcome to complete the story.

Although some of the ideals are a little outdated for nowadays, for 1956 they must have been way ahead of their time and that makes for interesting viewing. If for nothing else, this film is worth the performance of Wynter playing the woman torn between the two men she loves. This is a well told story that hinges on the performances of its cast rather than on the ghastly horror of war and this is what makes the film all too human. It’s a film with a barely relative title, but surprising contents.