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D-Day 6.6.1944 (TV) More at IMDbPro »

12 out of 14 people found the following review useful:
Small-scale production tells large-scale story, 3 March 2005

Author: Libretio

D-DAY 6.6.1944

Aspect ratio: 1.78:1

Sound format: Dolby Stereo

The BBC's contribution to an international 60th anniversary commemoration of the D-Day landings takes most of its cues from the success of SAVING PRIVATE RYAN (1998) and BAND OF BROTHERS (2001), though Richard Dale's ambitious film rings the changes by combining documentary interviews with veterans of the conflict and dramatized reconstructions of events surrounding the Normandy landings. Andrew Bampfield's script emphasizes the petty bureaucracy which frustrated the efforts of front-line Germans, all of whom anticipated a large-scale invasion but were unable to equip themselves against such an eventuality because of Hitler's obsession with the ongoing conflict in Russia. Much is also made of a clever subterfuge in which the Allies managed to convince German authorities that the initial D-Day landings were little more than a diversion, the precursor of a much larger invasion.

The testimony of real-life survivors adds poignancy to the drama, especially during the film's closing stretch, when the toll on all sides becomes vividly clear. Few of the battle scenes are as visceral as those depicted in SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, but Dale and his production team work small miracles on a tenth of that film's budget, merging CGI and in-camera effects with near-seamless integrity. The documentary footage is directed by Kim Bour, Pamela Gordon and Sally Weale.

(English, German and French soundtrack)

4 out of 4 people found the following review useful:
D-DAY 6.6.44 a Semi Documentary Movies, 24 February 2005
Author: Pura Krisnamurti (pura@melsa.net.id) from Indonesia

D-DAY, the greatest and famous military invasion during the World War II, is still a great story to tell. There's so many movies, documentary, literature, have been made to honor the men and women who sacrifice their life, for the name of freedom. D-Day tells the epic story of the preparation and execution of the Allied invasion of Normandy. It tells the story of the defense of the Western Front by the forces of the German Empire, and of the complex and deadly secret war fought by the men and women of France and mainland Europe. D-Day brings to life the dramatic and astounding tales of courage and sacrifice, joy and despair, love and betrayal.

D-DAY 6.6.44 brilliantly produced By Richard Dale (The Human Body, Walking with Cavemen, Teachers). Narrated by Ian Holmes, this semi documentary movies, trying to dramatic the preparations, and the execution itself. If you see this set of DVD, it will remain you the format of "Band of Brothers" mini series. There are stories that tell by a few old man/woman, which actually lived as a real actor on the D-DAY.

The war scene is good enough, if you don't compare them with "Saving Private Ryan" and "Band of Brothers", to describe and tells what happened on the hours of the D-DAY. The actors are really well chosen, e.g Rommel actors is very look a like the real person.

Maybe a little cons for the story is, it's only mention the landing of the troopers at the beaches, and lack of story which paratroopers who parachutes, and dramatically scattered on landing, in all over the Normandy area, where no one has the right point landing at the early morning of D-DAY. The portion for this story is very little, which only mentioned the British 9th parachutes regiment. There're no story about the famous US 101 Airbourne paratrooper landing.

But above the all, if you a World War II histories lovers, this DVD set is a must to you. This is another well done D-DAY story.

Redeemed by Interviews, 3 May 2011

Author: Guy from UK

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

D-DAY 6.6.44 is a big-budget docu-drama by the BBC. The film mixes archive, dramatic scenes and interviews to tell the story of the Normandy Landings. There are two great problems with this docu-drama. The first is that it isn't very good. The second is that the history on display is very thin.

Docu-dramas are extremely difficult to get right. The dramatic scenes usually suffer from a paucity of money whilst the documentary aspect usually ends up being rather basic. This is precisely what happens here. The CGI is cheap and often quite obvious. The actors are mostly hammy and uniformly fail to get the small details about clothes, hair and voice right. The history is an extremely basic narrative that ignores the last two decades of academic research in favour of highlighting a few moments (Omaha, Merville, Operation Tiger) in order to dramatise them. The dramatic scenes are generally uninteresting, acting as expensive wallpaper.

The problem is that decent drama builds up character and narrative. A docu- drama like this has to juggle numerous narratives and lacks the time to really build up characters to make them compelling. A lack of cash means that the technical aspects also fail to be compelling. So the docu-drama fails dramatically against the hyper- technical combat scenes of BAND OF BROTHERS or the emotional impact of a film like ATTACK. Yet at the same time it lacks the historical knowledge to be a decent documentary. Instead it becomes an over-long hodge-podge. The only redeeming factor are the interviews, several of which are excellent. The researchers also deserve credit for finding a number of rare interviewees.

P.S. If you want how a docu-drama should be made then have a look at Peter Watkin's THE WAR GAME.

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