I don’t think Last Week Tonight has changed as you suggest. It’s first and foremost a comedy show, and all the issues are more important than distracting, cheesy jokes... but it’s always made them. They’ve always strived to find a balance between comedy and the serious issues they’re talking about, and there have been…

Sorry to disagree with David so publicly, but I think it might be a good idea to keep talking about the goon who’s nakedly maneuvering us into a war with Iran just to get himself re-elected.

Shit! I’ve been owning Donald Trump on news.avclub.com when I could’ve been voting this whole time! Honey, hold my Drumpf mug — I’m headed to the polls!

The movie is definitely a bit of a slog, but I always loved the scene with Pvt. John Steele (played by Red Buttons, because why not) gets stuck on the church tower of Sainte Mere-Eglise.

I think the biggest compliment you can give The Longest Day is that it holds up extremely well in comparison to Saving Private Ryan and Band of Brothers. No, it doesn’t capture the wall-to-wall chaotic hellishness of war the way the two newer shows do, but in terms of verisimilitude—the costumes, the actors (real…

This review takes far too negative a view of this film, which still holds up nicely.

I generally look on The Longest Day favorably. It was a product of its time. There is a clear line between military movies made prior to Vietnam and those made during and after. Gory scenes of soldiers dying pointless deaths were just not done back then. Not just because of the sensors or technology but, as was…

That was my thought as well: there weren’t any Russians at Normandy, goddammit.

I like this movie a lot, and think the vignette style of story telling works well to convey the scope of the event, and also makes the point that while history is made up of individual acts, no individual or act is enough to sway things by itself.

He was commonly billed in English-language films as Curt, but his given name was Curd. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curd_J%C3%BCrgens

I haven’t seen this film, but I’ve been watching one of the clips mentioned above (the German general grumbling about how they’re going to lose the war because Hitler’s taken a sleeping pill and has left orders not to be awakened) and even in isolation it does sum up how very differently films (and particularly big…

“And maybe a movie like The Longest Day, a popular myth about American military supremacy, inadvertently helped convince Americans that a military adventure like Vietnam was a good idea.”

Longest Day is one of those movies that (unintentionally, of course) works great on basic cable, because you can watch almost any part between commercial breaks and there’s a segment worth watching. The vignettes are generally well constructed and make sense in isolation. I think that probably makes it work less well…

When I was a kid, I was not allowed to watch Saving Private Ryan but I was allowed to watch the Longest Day. Consequently, I have a special place for that film during the early years of my history geekdom.

My biggest memory is how even as a kid I found it ridiculous how John Wayne makes no attempt to act like he’s in any pain from a supposed broken ankle.

This has been in my queue to watch for years, I would also recommend seeing Tora Tora Tora which I know Zanuck had a hand in. I watched it for the first time a few months ago , and thought it was great in breaking down the machinations of the Japanese army at Pearl Harbor.

Because Gromit’s not the sidekick. Wallace is.

Can’t think of anyone I’d rather explore the post-apocalypse with. Good boy, Dogmeat.

It’s easy to have a waning career. Just start out really big and get smaller. Just like Madonna!

Yeah, that’s how she *got* famous, too, and it’s also how she’s managed to stay that way for going on four decades now. Madonna has never been the greatest singer in the world, but she knows how to get attention, hold attention, cause controversy, use that controversy to get more attention, make decent-to-good music…