The Light of Dawn: The Normandy Landings

Jun 6, 2014

1h 40m

★ 8.2

Overview

The Normandy landings of 6 June 1944 were pivotal to the outcome of WW2. We learn when Churchill and Roosevelt first proposed the operation and how preparations started—finishing with the key events of D-Day and the far-reaching effects of its outcome.

Genres

Documentary

War

Production Companies

Kuiv Productions

The Light of Dawn: The Normandy Landings Trailers

Cast

Himself - Narrator (voice)

Samuel Le Bihan

Based on a real-life story, this drama focuses on a small group of Allied soldiers in Burma who are held captive by the Japanese. Capt. Ernest Gordon, Lt. Jim Reardon and Maj. Ian Campbell are among the military officers kept imprisoned and routinely beaten and deprived of food. While Campbell wants to rebel and attempt an escape, Gordon tries to take a more stoic approach, an attitude that proves to be surprisingly resonant.

7.5

Sunflower

Mar 14, 1970

After World War II, a woman refuses to believe her husband, missing on the Russian front, is dead. Flashbacks reveal their brief courtship and marriage. Years later, she travels to Russia with his photo, determined to find him. What will she discover?

7.9

Downfall

Sep 16, 2004

In April of 1945, Germany stands at the brink of defeat with the Russian Army closing in from the east and the Allied Expeditionary Force attacking from the west. In Berlin, capital of the Third Reich, Adolf Hitler proclaims that Germany will still achieve victory and orders his generals and advisers to fight to the last man. When the end finally does come, and Hitler lies dead by his own hand, what is left of his military must find a way to end the killing that is the Battle of Berlin, and lay down their arms in surrender.

7.0

Soldier of Orange

Sep 22, 1977

The lives of Erik Lanshof and five of his closest friends take different paths when the German army invades the Netherlands in 1940: fight and resistance, fear and resignation, collaboration and high treason.

5.8

Appointment in Tokyo

Dec 7, 1945

Produced by the Army Pictorial Service, Signal Corps, with the cooperation of the Army Air Forces and the United States Navy, and released by Warner Bros. for the War Activities Committee shortly after the surrender of Japan. Follow General Douglas MacArthur and his men from their exile from the Philippines in early 1942, through the signing of the instrument of surrender on the USS Missouri on September 1, 1945. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2013.

7.2

Closely Watched Trains

Nov 18, 1966

At a village railway station in occupied Czechoslovakia, a bumbling dispatcher’s apprentice longs to liberate himself from his virginity. Oblivious to the war and the resistance that surrounds him, this young man embarks on a journey of sexual awakening and self-discovery, encountering a universe of frustration, eroticism, and adventure within his sleepy backwater depot.

8.2

Night and Fog

Jan 29, 1956

Filmmaker Alain Resnais documents the atrocities behind the walls of Hitler's concentration camps.

7.8

The Bridge on the River Kwai

Oct 11, 1957

The classic story of English POWs in Burma forced to build a bridge to aid the war effort of their Japanese captors. British and American intelligence officers conspire to blow up the structure, but Col. Nicholson, the commander who supervised the bridge's construction, has acquired a sense of pride in his creation and tries to foil their plans.

7.4

Enemy at the Gates

Feb 28, 2001

A Russian and a German sniper play a game of cat-and-mouse during the Battle of Stalingrad in WWII.

8.2

Saving Private Ryan

Jul 24, 1998

As U.S. troops storm the beaches of Normandy, three brothers lie dead on the battlefield, with a fourth trapped behind enemy lines. Ranger captain John Miller and seven men are tasked with penetrating German-held territory and bringing the boy home.

6.0

Attack! The Battle for New Britain

Jun 20, 1944

Actual footage by the United States Signal Corps of the landing and attack on Arawe Beach, Cape Glouster, New Britain island in 1943 in the South Pacific theatre of World War Two, and the handicaps of the wild jungle in addition to the Japanese snipers and pill-box emplacements.

8.3

The Great Dictator

Oct 15, 1940

Dictator Adenoid Hynkel tries to expand his empire while a poor Jewish barber tries to avoid persecution from Hynkel's regime.

7.2

Suite Française

Mar 12, 2015

France, 1940. In the first days of occupation, beautiful Lucile Angellier is trapped in a stifled existence with her controlling mother-in-law as they both await news of her husband: a prisoner of war. Parisian refugees start to pour into their small town, soon followed by a regiment of German soldiers who take up residence in the villagers' own homes. Lucile initially tries to ignore Bruno von Falk, the handsome and refined German officer staying with them. But soon, a powerful love draws them together and leads them into the tragedy of war.

0.0

The Bride and the Curfew

Nov 28, 1978

Shpresa goes to the house of fascist collaborators to commit an assassination. After that, dressed as a bride, she becomes an illegal.

5.2

Operation Cross Eagles

Jan 1, 1968

In Yugoslavia during WWII, a small band of courageous commandoes are sent to kidnap an important German commander in exchange for an American general being held in a German fortress.

6.9

The Tin Drum

May 2, 1979

In 1924, Oskar Matzerath is born in the Free City of Danzig. At age three, he falls down a flight of stairs and stops growing. In 1939, World War II breaks out.

6.9

Pearl Harbor

May 21, 2001

The lifelong friendship between Rafe McCawley and Danny Walker is put to the ultimate test when the two ace fighter pilots become entangled in a love triangle with beautiful Naval nurse Evelyn Johnson. But the rivalry between the friends-turned-foes is immediately put on hold when they find themselves at the center of Japan's devastating attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.

0.0

The Illegals

Apr 2, 1976

During World War II, an Italian agent tries to infiltrate the Albanian guerrilla units under the identity of 'engineer Tosti'.

0.0

A Foreign Field

Sep 10, 1993

Nostalgic comic drama in which Cyril and Amos, two veterans of the Normandy landings, return to France to visit the grave of their wartime buddy. They encounter Waldo, an American on a similar mission, and the meeting sparks memories of an old girlfriend from the past. With the mysterious American lady Lisa in their wake, Cyril and Waldo decide to try and track her down.

0.0

Bloody Land

Feb 6, 1976

Film set in three different times. In the beginning, Miti is killed while defending his land. Then, the film focuses on his son Gjergji who fights against the Italian forces. In the end, the land is redistributed by the agrarian reform.

The Light of Dawn: The Normandy Landings

Overview

Genres

Production Companies

The Light of Dawn: The Normandy Landings Trailers