I seem to be watching more movies involving soldiers lately, including a few rewatches I didn't write about on this blog. It's not that my interest has grown. In this case, I noted that the anniversary of D-Day is coming up. And the TV movie runs less than 90 minutes without commercial breaks.
The story begins in December 1943, but the exact number of days remaining is first shown after one of several time jumps, to March 1944. It ends, of course, shortly after the Normandy landings. General Dwight Eisenhower (Tom Selleck without a mustache) spends the interim mostly hashing out details with other important figures, including Omar Bradley (James Remar), George S. Patton (Gerald McRaney), Walter Bedell Smith (Timothy Bottoms), Winston Churchill (Ian Mune), and Charles de Gaulle (George Shevtsov).
Yeah, get used to seeing mostly middle-aged White men. I think the only female character of note is Queen Elizabeth (Carole Seay) -- not II but the Queen Mother, who accompanies King George VI (Mick Rose) for one scene.
This is one of the few war films I've seen with no battle sequences, the closest we get being a glimpse of an aftermath. I can enjoy such fare, but it takes someone with a more extreme personality than Ike, no matter how reputedly well played, to keep me engaged in military talk. His reprimand of Patton may be my favorite moment, partly for bringing to mind the 1970 Patton, which I should watch again.
Speaking of other flicks, we get to see officers watching three at private screenings. I'm not interested in Cover Girl, but I've added Sahara and Henry V to my YouTube list.
The usual focus of discussion is whether Operation Neptune will be too dangerous for comfort. In particular, a rainstorm could increase casualties. But how long can the Allies afford to postpone for better weather?
The presented information may be a little too inaccurate for a good history lesson. Both IMDb and Wikipedia list quite a few anachronisms and other factual errors. I guess the important facts are still intact, so we're not getting the wrong overarching message.
I:CtDD is far from the best movie related to D-Day. Still, it got me thinking about aspects of the past that hadn't occurred to me. And it felt as short as it is.
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