A Review of "D-Day: Over Normandy"
Over the weekend I went to the premiere of the movie Chaps and I talked about on Zero Blog Thirty, D-Day: Over Normandy, held in Providence. That’s Rob Ninkovich hosting the event because the film is narrated by Bill Belichick. It’s a documentary combines drone footage from the sites of the battles with archival footage and first hand accounts of the men who hit the beaches, parachuted behind enemy lines, took the withering fire and established the foothold that eventually freed a continent. The film is staring to make the rounds on PBS, but I grabbed the Blu-Ray because while I thought I’d seen every take on the most pivotal battle possibly in western history, I hadn’t seen anything like this. And coming out as it is in that perfect spot between Memorial Day and the anniversary of D-Day, it’s well worth finding the listing and DVRing it. I’d assume I don’t need to say “spoilers ahead,” but history is not for everyone. My brother swears when he saw Titanic a high school girl started crying hysterically because she didn’t know it sinks at the end. Anyway, a few of the highlights:
Simply put, what sets Over Normandy apart from the other 150,000 D-Day specials I’ve seen, other than having the world’s greatest football genius/narrator doing the voice over, is the drone footage. You can watch all the grainy black and white film of the actual battle in the world and still not truly grasp the magnitude of what these men were ordered to accomplish until you see these shots of the topography. The long expanses of open beach in the shadows of cliffs no sane man would want to scale on a nice weekend in the White Mountains. And they had to take them with unimaginable amounts of Nazi hellfire raining down on them.
The tops of the cliffs in some spots are pocked to this day with massive blast craters from bombs dropped by the Army Air Corps and shells by the Navy ships to weaken resistance. And seeing two old friends greet each other amid the holes, now grown over with grass but still visible is haunting. But not as much as hearing the one with the cane tell the one with the wraparound cataract glasses he saved his life when his ship pulled to within 400 yards of the shore to counter attack a German pillbox that was cutting his men to ribbons.
And it hits you that every one of us is guilty to some extent of marginalizing old people as Grandpa Simpsons. But you hear these men tell their stories, weep at the graves of their fallen comrades 73 years after they died, shrug at their own acts of valor, and it hits you – as it should – that these aren’t feeble, doddering old fools. These are just older versions of the 18-year-olds who ran straight into unfathomable hell because it was their duty. It’s something to keep in mind for the generation that grew up on Nickelodeon commercials where granddad is senile and smells funny. Because these granddads were establishing a beach head at a time when the 1940s Europe version of Nick Jr. kids were being forced into gas chambers by the thousands.
The audience was filled with such men. And women. I sat behind a couple in their 80s, him in his army uniform and her in her (I think) W.A.C. uniform and cap. When all the veterans were asked to stand, those that could, did. And we clapped. Though you couldn’t hear us over the sound of their cast iron testicles banging like bell clappers.
Also captured by the drone was the topography of the surrounding towns and farmland the Airborne parachuted into. So you get the feel not only of the rooftops and trees they had to drop into, but the hedgerows. The thick, ancient vegetation that separates fields that they had not been prepared for, but the Germans had been dealing with for four years. One of my favorite moments was the story of the assault on the entrenched Nazi guns that were bombarding Utah Beach. It’s the same attack they did in Band of Brothers, led by Dick Winters that is still taught to soldiers to this day.
Also there’s a heavy emphasis on the Rangers capturing Pont du Hoc, the most inhospitable terrain and fiercest fighting of the entire engagement. If you know nothing about it, check this speech by Reagan on the 40th anniversary. It’s one of the best memorial speeches ever delivered. There are longer versions, but this’ll do:
I defy anyone to see the drone shots of the U.S. cemetery, with 9,300 headstones laid out in perfect rows and not feel it in your soul. Or the German cemetery, carefully maintained by the French and honored by the men who put the Germans in those graves.
Just to get back to the Patriots angle on this, the director told us Belichick recorded his narration on the first day of NFL free agency. So while he was signing Stephon Gilmore and swinging the Brandin Cooks deal, he was banging out Oscar-worthy, Morgan Freeman-caliber work.
On a final note, 16 million Americans fought in WWII. We’re now down to 800,000 and we’re losing them at a rate of 500 a day. Honor these people while we still can. And to do that right, you should know their stories and their sacrifices. This movie helps.
