Americanatching history tv all weekend, every weekend. A panel of historians discuss the different ways dday has been remember in the United States and abroad. In the u. S. , it has been memorialized. By contrast in germany, theres not a single museum marking the dday invasion. The panel looks at how Different Countries have changed their views. For example in some countries, simply to the nazis, dday was seen as in defeatist terms and later the liberation of europe. The museum in new orleans hosted this event. , thank you for joining us ladies and gentlemen. If you are just joining our programming, i am dr. Keith hudson. Have the distinct pleasure of presiding over a panel of distinguished scholars to discuss the subject of dday and how we commemorate and remember there is a great decisive event of world war ii down, 70 years on. Oneou Pay Attention today, can still see a current news reports where the results of world war ii still reverberate chinese,rld such as in japanese relations or the situation between russia and ukraine today. If one travels you will see how different nations remember the war and their own a national cemeteries,uments, and other places of cultural memory. Joining us today are dr. Michael doctor,nd another contributors to another volume which deals specifically with the Normandy Landings and how they are remembered and commemorated internationally. Not only wasolksy a contributor, but also served as one of the editors of the volume. He holds a phd from Templeton University and is a historian with a joint preserve war missing in action Accounting Command Central Identification Laboratory in hawaii. W is theer bisha professor of history and director of Center Austria at university of new orleans. He was a graduate student of our ateum founder, and our ceo uno. Before going to Harvard University to earn his doctorate in history. As a president ial counselor, a group of renowned historians who advised dr. Miller here at the National World war ii museum. And joining for our discussion as well is dr. John mcmanus, who americansor of military and served as our keynote speaker, the past two days for our event commemorating the 70th anniversary here at the museum. Gentlemen, welcome. [applause] to begin our discussion today sky who willbol present his ideas and thought about the american expense of remembering dday. Keith. K you, first of all i will like to say thank you to everybody here today and in the veterans and this is the reason we are all here for this. First of all, i have to issue a disclaimer that everything i say represents my own ideas and not the department of defense. Ok, allow me to set the stage. Craft overburden with a nervous men, cluster soldiers shipped about in lastminute destruction. Repaired ly prepared. O show the shoreline shiftldiers eventually and a few individuals, captain breach. Ler with such a and it quickly dissolves. Theres a depiction that i gave you very briefly with a warralized of the tell of and is what dr. Mcmanus presented yesterday. The details here have been drawn at this point from the 1998 blockbuster movie saving private ryan. Populard to be a very and acts as a frame of world war ii. As was alluded to. My question is why is it second place in our understanding. Stems from question the dday films. To understand the past. Look at how people try to understand events. Several things like books and speeches and monuments and events such as this. I am choosing to talk about one point of the movie. Into the tale of american heroes. Democratic heroes. Fighting on the half of the nation. In normandy. He called this democracy. These things go beyond the movies as well. In fact, and former discussions of the battle. Despite the growing and immediate postwar years, American Society did not focus so much on the war itself. It was trying to get on with things. The going to the end of 1940s, john wayne was for popular with fans of iwo jima. Then, theres a brief. Were there was much attention paid to the war itself. Out in 1948. It is actually dday movie that well proceeds saving private vine ryan. It is not particularly a good movie. With fightingama germans in the sky. The battle seemed to depend on a few guys that take the fight to the germans in the sky. Likewise, there is a 1950 movie called breakthrough. It depicts a preparation for the conduct of combat in normandy. The central character you see depicted as lieutenant joe mallory. English teacher who struggle to lead his men to combat on the shores of normandy. Interesting, for any of you that saw saving private ryan, it is sort of a prelude to tom hanks character in that movie. One of the most bloodsoaked sectors of omaha beach, which again, john talked about in his discussion. These early movies showed sanitized versions of the war. Theyre relatively bloodless. Overcome the enemy on dday. They created very tidy narratives for what are essentially commonplace events. There were examples of major films of how wars should be fought and won. Largely in reference to the Second World War. We can take a brief moment to talk about the steel helmet, which is not a world war ii movie. It was written and directed by sam fuller. He threw this movie together in late 1950. It was going to be another world war ii movie, but he realized with korea public attention is shifting to the new war. He rapidly shifted it and made it into a korean war melodrama. He threw the guys together behind m a enemy lines. What is instructive, is that Sergeant Zach was a dday veteran. He constantly referred back to dday and the men of normandy as an example of how soldiers should act given the most pressing of circumstances. Film versions of the Second World War and dday in particular existed in a mutually influential relationship with society. Theyre influencing how society sees warfare. Very quickly, because time is pressing, i will run through a couple other dday films to show evolution of some key ideas that are mentioned at the outset. The first major american movie that focus on dday is the 1956 title dday. It begins with the invasion forces. Quickly switches to this melodrama, this relationship between these two individuals and their fighting over the same woman that they have fallen in love with. The guy and the left is british and the guy on the right is american. Interestingly enough, they work out their differences and come together in order to fight on the beaches of normandy in order success. Theres plenty to talk about transatlantic relationships. Even though we have different opinions and we dont always rub each other right way the right way, we can Work Together for success. In the battle scene near the end, these two characters work out their differences. You can see in gangsteresque , he steps on a landmine and dies immediately. A diversion away from the book that was the main source of the movie. In the book, he steps on the mind but survives. The filmmakers were trying to the britishstone to empire and british independence. In a very fitting way to say that the British Empire died on the beaches of normandy, right when the american empire was picking up. Flaws in thertain movie. The special effects were pretty spotty. Those planes were handdrawn. It was an action oriented film. It offered a chance for the heroes to earn success. It was brief and relatively bloodless. This is a story that was not really all that different from other world war ii movies that were out there. American strength and vigor leads to ultimate success. That film seems pretty different from what most people come to latch onto as the iconic world war ii, if not dday movie. The longest day is based for a book of thate title. There are significant differences. Some of the major differences like the fighting lead to some rather notable controversies. Again, we can talk about that later. It leads toward the epic. Productions 1962, a of the famed Film Producer darryl zanuck who fell in love with the book and purchased the rights to make the movie. He looked to the longest day is a crowning achievement of is long and distinguished career. He fully expected it to be the most important war film ever made. This is an argument that we will see in 1998 with saving private ryan as well. Saw this as a way to revive his own career. For new century fox was in dire straits because of the overproduction costs on cleopatra. Producer and the director had a clash of personalities. Did not get along. It was hate at first sight. One difference of opinion was darryl zanuck insisted on creating a role for his then girlfriend. She played a french resistant agent and sex object in the film. Have none of this. He did not want to make his beloved story into some sort of love story. He felt there was no place for that in the movie. As you can see, darryl zanuck won that argument. Masterpiece. A why did it make such a success . I think you can draw on a couple of things. Zanuck showed what he was thinking when he made a movie. One thing he argued was, the allied made every conceivable blood or an error. The germans were even more stupid. We can only come to the conclusion that god was on our side. This is an argument that was very appealing. Of x film capture the chaos the battle in a way that the resources he could devote to the project were immense. While filming it, the film makers controlled ninth Largest Military force in the world, which is absolutely immense. Storytellingshed that he was able to portray the movie also drew on certain themes that were popular by then. Ambrose saysphen the triumphm shows of democracy over dictatorship. Triumphination of drama of good. All of these come together to the immense popularity of the movie. Made 17 million in its initial year of release. You can see, some of the flurry of stars, darryl zanuck at the top chomping on his cigar which is typical when he was filming. Middle, john wayne who threw his name into the hat at the last minute. Then at the bottom, Robert Mitchum. It is unfortunate that Robert Mitchum got one of the coolest lines and the title. It is not accurate at all. It made for good comedy. Enemiess on allies and this is the early 60s after german rearmament. Were trying to show that even the germans fought well and somewhat honorably as well. It is just part of the moment of the 60s. Part of the reason for the success of the movie as well. Even with the profound success of the longest day, all would not remain placid. Toould like to take a moment talk about our alternate stories that we can tell about dday. Movies thatebration i talked about briefly so far, these are the only options. One of them is here with arthur millers 1954 film, the americanization of emily. , arthur himself said one thing we can do toward eliminating war from our world is get rid of the goodness and virtue we attribute to war. Heres very consciously trying to poke apart the celebratory narrative of war. Focusing on the cowardly protagonist portrayed by james garner at the top of the poster, the primary message of the movie is a critique of the glorification of war. You can see this is going in on dday itself. Just the look of abject terror on james garners face. Again, this is very different from the book. The book showed the Lieutenant Commander as sensible and a guy who did not want to die and the beaches. In the movie, the unpackaged that and made it a story about a complete coward. Trying to survive the war anyway possible. It wasnt very popular, but it was a movie that was out there. Admiral gets the idea to boost the navys reputation by proffering one of its own is the first dead man on omaha beach. That is how the navy is going to one up the army in the movie. Turning the common dday that was very well known in the 60s on their head, you see james garner storming the beach on his own. He promptly gets hit by a near mortar round and dies. So you think. And heured on film hits all the magazine shelves and becomes the famous face of omaha beach. The blast just knocked him unconscious. His friend even went so far as to say when he found out, we had a nice dead hero, now we have a live coward. Again, just on packaging the common stories of dday glory that were out there. By the mid60s, what was going on is the best United States was going into vietnam. They conspire to push hollywood away from these kinds of stories. This was the last major hollywood depiction of dday the after vietnam, until 1980s. However, there were references to dday out there. He did not have to depicted. You can draw on some things that you couldly reference things that people could widely understand. Blazingut out there saddles. It is a comedy. Here, we see a scene nearly at the end of the movie where theyre drawing on some of the iconic dday phrases. There is an assembled group of bad guys, were about to embark on a great crusade. The bad guys went out and attacked the village. Does the object of concern. What was mel brooks doing . He was trying on something that was widely known and prevalent at that time, these dday phrases were something that people understood. Heres trying to turn them on their head. This wasnt the only place you could see dday in the 60s and 70s. The world at war, the very ,opular documentary from 1973 also showed, im not getting into documentaries, but even there you can see how we depict dday is changing very notably. It is more grim and destructive. Anyway, what the americanization of emily and blazing saddles, what we see is to zany films that are poking holes at the common dday stories. Theyre trying to challenge american conceptions of warfare through dday specific stories. Often told afilm story that americans want to hear. Were winningys, the war and saving the world and making it right for democracy. With that characterization of the Second World War in general and dday in particular, we can see why dday comes back to its own in the 80s and on. I will talk about a couple of things really quick. This is a 1980of movie by sam fuller, the big red one. He felt the john wayne is tried to position himself to be cast as a sergeant, a role that would eventually go to lee marvin. Sam fuller did not like john wayne. He thought he returned to this hokey story that he could not support. He held off and funding went away. He wasnt able to make the movie until 1978. It was released in 1980. A small film treats group of men. Really, it is very different from the longest day, where you get the grand scale and this flurry of stars. You try to conceive of the whole of that. Here, he is zeroing in on a couple of guys and trying to make you more personable, a more relatable story. These guys are good guys, their crack ups, jokesters. They do good things, they save civilians in combat. Theyre very different from the germans to pages in the movie. At the end of the movie, we close off with the still smoking ovens in a nazi cap. It is very clearly setting the himself whileller he is directing. One of the dday scenes. Staras awarded the silver for his actions on dday. He was there. He was a decorated vet. Chopping a cigar is a requirement for dday filming. Also shooting the gun. This is something that fuller did during his action movies. He wanted the actors to feel like they were actually there, so he would fire up in the air and sometimes kind of close to them as well. This shows certain blending of vietnam influences. After 1964, when you get rid of the haze reduction code that he was selfcentered, hollywood, you could show things that you see in the movie like interactions with prostitutes that you could not see in earlier war movies. They would not have passed. Theres a difference here. The is not like some of iconic vietnam movies where there was pointless terror and brutalizing. Combat served a purpose. We won the war and made the world right for humanity. It is Still Critical of highlevel leadership. This scene right before the guys beaches,ng on normandy they were told it was going to be a cakewalk. We are not going to face any intense opposition whatsoever and then immediately it cuts to under heavyering fire, taking many losses. It is critiquing the highlevel leadership, even celebration of eisenhower that was still pretty popular. I think this is instructive for a couple of reasons. I going to wrap up here very quickly. This comes at a moment when people are starting to latch on to dday to talk about american success and american patriotism and american honor. Reagan did this most famously and 84 when he celebrated the 40th anniversary. He is not the only one. The 80s started an explosion of dday consideration focus. There were Tv Documentaries and books. Stephen ambrose started stepping into dday. The 90s therey were plenty of examples of dday as an american Success Story. That is where you get saving. Rivate ryan it didnt just come out of nowhere. It came as a result of a Stephen Ambrose book in 1994. A screenwriter reddin said it would make a great movie. They turned it into very successful and popular movie. Ambrose was not just a historian. He stepped into the circles of hollywood. He helped create this museum that we are at today. He did plenty of things that helped sell his particular this successday as of democratic heroes fighting and preserving the world for liberty. Quickly, i will skip through there. You see Steven Spielberg filming. No cigar in his hand. To go for band of brothers in 2001. Due to the success of saving private ryan, another Stephen Ambrose book that he turns into a miniseries. Now we can see that even Cable Television is getting into the game. It is so popular and so successful. Band of brothers, which aired the first two episodes here last in september shown 9, 2001. Two days later, terrorist attacks. Proclamationsblic were drawing on art samples from dday in world war ii and how we save and preserve the world for democracy. It was very much out there in the air during presentday events, which is something we could talk about a little bit more at the end. Movie, i will throw a mention out to it. Tnt made a madefortv movie. Tom selleck is eisenhower in a movie called ike countdown to dday. This was to show that everyone at this point was so interested in telling