"The Longest Day" DVD question (1 Viewer)

[Eric Huffstutler]

I have the older copy of "The Longest Day" and decided to look at it yesterday only to see an error I didn't pay attention to before. It is only on the older version or the newer anamorphic version too?

That is where Rommel is talking to his officers at the beach prior to the title card. It is obviously a green screen background and as he walks and talks he abruptly disappears but is still talking while the background continues uninterrupted. Then he pops back up on screen 7 seconds later!
It is at the 00:04:56 point.

I also noticed something odd looking with the disc... like the hub has a ragged dark discoloration like the metal edge in that area is discoloring?

Anyone else with the same?

Eric

 

[David_B_K]

That shot appears the same way on both the anamorphic DVD and the Blu-ray. I do not think it is an error but rather, a poorly executed attempt at a cut. Rommel is talking about how peaceful the waves look. I think the shot where Rommel "disappears" was meant to be a shot of the water alone. What kills its effectiveness is that they did not cut to a different shot of the water with different waves; they merely showed the same water that was behind Rommel with Rommel removed.

Or it could just be an error. In any case, it appears in all versions on DVD and Blu-ray.

 

[Douglas R]

That's how I've always seen it. It's simply meant to be a separate shot of the sea to co-incide with Rommel telling his officers to "look at the sea...how calm it is". I've never thought it was any kind of error.

 

[Eric Huffstutler]

It definitely looks like an editing error. If you were trying to create an illusion you would have changed angles or zoomed in on the beach rather than simply abruptly removing the overlaying image of the actor over a static picture in the background then have them just as abruptly pop back in 7 seconds later in a different area of the shot. It is almost like having 7 seconds of the film missing but the soundtrack remains.

 

[Paul Penna]

It's like that on the 1989 CBS/Fox letterboxed laserdisc as well. There are actually splices in the background element at the point Rommel appears and disappears, with slight discontinuities in wave positions, but it's also obvious it's all originally from one continuous shot. It really does look awkward. I wonder if some part of a workprint found its way into the element from which all subsequent video masters were derived, or if that's even possible/likely.

 

[Mark B]

It's simply a bad choice made in the editing room. A similar blue-sceen effect is seen during the raft sequence in Ben-Hur '59, when a shot of the actors cuts in closer, but the backing image remains the same.

 

[jim_falconer]

I don't have much to say about the editing error, but I was just thinking about watching this superior film again soon. The recent 65th anniversary of D-Day got me to thinking of this movie again.

COL. BEN VANDERVOORT - "Send them to hell"

 

[mikeyd2007]

excellent movie

 

[David_B_K]

Posted by jim_falconer: I don't have much to say about the editing error, but I was just thinking about watching this superior film again soon. The recent 65th anniversary of D-Day got me to thinking of this movie again.


The wife and I did that very thing this past Saturday, watching the film (Blu-ray version) on D-Day. I think the last time I watched it was D-Day last year.

As to the sloppy editing, I wonder if it exists in the English language version? There was a version of The Longest Day, apparently shot simultaneous to the current version, in which the Germans spoke English (maybe the French, too). I think that is the version I first saw of the film on network television (though I could be mis-remembering this) back in the mid-70's. I also remember a TV promo in which Mel Ferrer is shown reading a radio announcement that " a landing was made on the coast of France". I wonder if that scene is only in the english language version, or is a snippet that was cut and only appeared in a trailer?

 

[juda]

Agree totally..Fail for me