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Over six decades later, The Longest Day still stands out as one of the most well-made World War II movies ever put on screen. It aimed big — telling the D-Day story from not just one side but through the eyes of American, British, French, and German soldiers. To pull that off, producer Darryl F. Zanuck, renowned for his sprawling movies, including the troubled U.S.-Japan co-production Tora! Tora! Tora!, which involved Akira Kurosawa, brought in three directors. Ken Annakin, Andrew Marton, and Bernhard Wicki each helmed a different front of the war. John Wayne and Henry Fonda joined an expansive, star-studded ensemble cast, including Sean Connery, Robert Mitchum, and Richard Burton, to deliver a stunning recreation of the landings in Normandy with spectacle and authenticity.

Featuring real paratroopers, actual battle locations, and veterans guiding the production, the film doesn’t hold back in showing the full reality of war, be it the chaos, the solidarity, the fear, and everything in between. Just like A Bridge Too Far details Operation Market Garden with precision, The Longest Day‘s black-and-white dramatization of D-Day offers the most compelling portrayal of one of World War II’s most pivotal events.

Three Directors and a Cast of Thousands Built One of the Best War Movies Ever Made

Image via 20th Century Studios

More than just a movie, The Longest Day is a full-scale reenactment of D-Day. The story draws from firsthand accounts by veterans who experienced the operation. With a cast of 42 A-list stars and thousands of extras, including real paratroopers leaping from planes over Normandy, the film relies on its sheer cinematic muscle. Adopting an ambitious storytelling approach, with no CGI and no shaky-cam close-ups, the film is one of the most thoughtful and balanced portrayals of the D-Day invasion, presenting the viewpoints of major parties involved. The Longest Day doesn’t try to pull you into the action; it’s just a wide-angle view of the day as it happened, leaving judgment to the viewer.

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The three directors assigned to the project concentrated on the nitty-gritty details of accounts within their jurisdiction: Annakin handled the British and French scenes, Marton directed the American sequences, and Wicki oversaw the German segments. The first hour of the film’s near-three-hour runtime builds tension by following the Allied powers as they strategize and the Axis powers as they wait in anticipation. There’s the Allies’ debate over the timing of the attack in bad weather, French villagers smuggling intel, and German commanders bickering over Hitler’s absence. This sequential, documentary-like approach to the film’s storytelling forms the foundation of its epic action. When the landings do take place, it’s two hours of relentless bursts of gunfire and explosives across multiple fronts, revealing not just the war’s carnage but its chaos as well. From the air to the sea, The Longest Day captures the invasion of Normandy in painstaking detail.

John Wayne and Henry Fonda Contribute to Performances That Define a Genre and Technical Mastery

In a film where most actors have limited screen time, John Wayne and Henry Fonda are among the few given more prominent roles. John Wayne plays Lt. Col. Benjamin Vandervoort, the real-life figure who broke his ankle during the landing and ended up becoming a war hero for how he and his unit defended the town of Sainte-Mère-Église. For the few minutes he is on-screen, Wayne plays Vandervoort with his typical larger-than-life screen presence. He urges his troops to march on, motivating them with his speeches and lived experience (although Vandervoort was almost twice as young as Wayne’s 55 years during the war). Henry Fonda, on the other hand, portrays Brig. Gen. Theodore Roosevelt Jr., the president’s son who refuses to sit out of front-row action and history just because of his name. However, the film doesn’t treat them — or anyone else — as typical heroes you’d often find in a character-driven drama. Its focus is on showing the events as they really happened.

With an 84% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, The Longest Day continues to earn respect for its lasting power. Whether you’re coming back to it out of nostalgia or watching it for the very first time, its scale and ambition still command awe. In its three hours, the film proves why it’s a monument to historical cinema.

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The Longest Day

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Release Date

October 4, 1962

Runtime

178 minutes

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Director

Andrew Marton, Bernhard Wicki, Ken Annakin

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Writers

Cornelius Ryan, David Pursall, Jack Seddon, James Jones, Romain Gary

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• 

  Henry Fonda

  Brig. Gen. Theodore Roosevelt Jr.

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  Lt. Col. Benjamin Vandervoort

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Guess Which Iconic Model
This Precious Baby
Turned Into!

Published
February 23, 2026
12:01 AM PST

Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino has a message for his Jersey Shore costar Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi amid her recent cancer diagnosis.

“Sending prayers full of love, promotion and healing to our girl @snooki,” Sorrentino, 43, wrote via X on Sunday, February 22, alongside a bandaged heart emoji and a throwback photo featuring Snooki, 38.

Snooki announced on Friday, February 20, via TikTok that she received a stage I cervical cancer diagnosis.

“Obviously not the news that I was hoping for,” Snooki said after sharing that she recently had a biopsy. “But also not the worst news, just because they caught it so early.”

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Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino and Ronnie Ortiz-Magro can’t believe how far the Jersey Shore family has come. “It’s definitely hard to wrap your head around 15 years. But I think short and sweet, we’ve turned 15 minutes of fame into 15 years, and the story continues,” Mike, 43, exclusively shared with Us Weekly before the […]

Snooki encouraged her followers to get an annual Pap smear, which is how the reality TV star learned she has cancerous cells on her cervix.

“That’s why I’m literally telling you guys to get your Pap smears done. I’m 38 years old. I’ve been struggling with abnormal Pap smears for like, three, four years now,” she said. “And now look at me, and instead of just, like, putting it off because I didn’t want to go, and it hurt and I was scared, no, I just went and did it, [and] cancer’s in there, and it’s only stage I and it’s curable.”

Snooki explained that she had a colposcopy — a test for “abnormal tissue,” according to Mayo Clinic — which “took a chunk out of [her] cervix.” She then underwent a cone biopsy, which Mayo Clinic defined as a procedure in which “surgeons remove a cone-shaped wedge of abnormal tissue from your cervix.”

The biopsy uncovered that the margins around the tumor were clear and hadn’t spread beyond the cervix, but Snooki noted that there’s a chance the cancer could spread throughout her body since this type is generally “more aggressive.” Snooki shared she has a PET scan scheduled to figure out whether there is cancer elsewhere in her body.

“And then after that, I’m going to probably get the hysterectomy, because the oncologist said you can either do chemo, radiation or the hysterectomy,” she continued. “Obviously, I think the smart choice here is the hysterectomy. I’ll still keep my ovaries, which is a good sign, but the hysterectomy, got to get the cervix in, the uterus out and then possibly lymph nodes, because it can [spread there]. So I guess it all depends on the PET scan.”

Despite the year “not turning out” the way she hoped, Snooki shared her positive outlook.

“Could be very much worse,” she said, while asking followers to comment on the video if they’re going through something similar.

Snooki — who shares kids Lorenzo, 13, Giovanna, 11, and Angelo, 6, with husband Jionni LaValle — also promised to be “vulnerable” on her social media while sharing updates on her health journey.

On Sunday, Snooki shared a separate TikTok video weighing in on the support she has received by making a heart with her hands as she mouthed “I love you.”

“Seeing all the love you guys have shown me means THE WORLD to me,” she captioned the post, “thanks for being my besties 4ever 😭🙏🏽💕.”

Former Project Runway mentor Tim Gunn has detailed why he hasn’t had sex for more than four decades.

During the Thursday, February 19, episode of Chelsea Handler’s “Dear Chelsea” podcast, Gunn, 72, explained that he’s been celibate for 43 years following a devastating breakup.

“I had a very serious nine-year relationship in Washington, D.C., and I loved this person deeply and would have done anything for him. And I still remember the night that it all ended,” Gunn told Handler, 50. “We were in bed watching M*A*S*H … he said to me, ‘I have no patience for you any longer. I want you to leave.’ I had my own apartment, but I had been living with him for years, and I left. I drove to my apartment on Rock Creek Parkway, and I had to pull off because I was hyperventilating. I was beside myself with self flagellation and self pity, and it was awful.”

Gunn, who also executive produced the Bravo reality fashion series from its 2004 debut through to 2017, added that his former partner was somebody he had worked with. “So it wasn’t as though I just would never see him again,” he said. “One of the things that he told me that night was that he’d been sleeping with just about everything that walked by, and I had been loyal and faithful to him. He was the only person I’d ever been with.”

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Barbara Nitke / ©Lifetime / courtesy Everett Collection Tim Gunn has revealed the true story behind his unforgettable Project Runway catchphrase “make it work.” “I’ll tell you the catalyst for [‘make it work’],” Gunn, 71, told People in an interview published on February 20. “I was teaching a two-semester-long class – 30 weeks – with […]

He continued, “The self pity then turned to completely unbridled anger because I thought he may have given me a death sentence. Of course, and I was tested every six months for ten years for HIV and thankfully I had a clean slate. But whenever I was even tempted to engage in something that could become serious with someone, all this would come back like Niagara Falls, and it would just take the desire away.”

Gunn, who currently produces and stars alongside former Project Runway host Heidi Klum in the reality fashion series Making the Cut, added that remaining celebate wasn’t easy.

“I have to say, being celibate and being someone who lives alone was a bit of an adjustment, but now I wouldn’t have it any other way,” he said. Gunn is currently single and typically keeps details regarding his private life close to his chest.

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Over the years, many celebrities have opened up about their personal choice to abstain from sex, whether it’s for a few months or until marriage. In October 2021, Nick Cannon made headlines when he announced his decision to stay celibate after welcoming his seventh child earlier that year. “I’m going to see if I could […]

After Handler expressed sympathy over Gunn’s former relationship breakdown, he offered further perspective into his mindset around celibacy. “Things happen for a reason, and sometimes the reason isn’t revealed at the moment,” he began. “It may not be revealed for days, weeks, or months, or sometimes even years. But had this relationship not fallen apart, I would never have moved to New York. It would never have happened.”

Gunn was not part of July 2025’s Project Runway reboot, telling People five months prior to the show’s premiere that he was not asked back. “Heidi [Klum] and I were texting and texting, and several months later, she sent me a text asking, ‘Are you happy with your contract?’ I’m a truth-teller. I don’t even mince words,” Gunn told the outlet at the time. “I said, ‘Well, I haven’t seen a contract.’ And she said, ‘You haven’t?’ No.”

Klum, 52, told Us Weekly at the time that fans weren’t happy with Gunn’s omission from the new-look show. “Our fans are upset, you know, because we have a great audience,” the host said last year. “People loved us for 16 years. I guess they were maybe upset that they’ll never see us again, but Tim and I are sticking together.”

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February 23, 2026
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