To discuss the subject of dday and how we commemorate and remember this great decisive event of world war ii down, 70 years on. If you Pay Attention today, one can still see a current news reports where the results of world war ii still reverberate in our world such as in chinese, japanese relations or the situation between russia and ukraine today. If one travels, you will see how different nations remember the war in their own a national museums, monuments, cemeteries, and other places of cultural memory. Joining us today are dr. Michael dolsky and another doctor, contributors to another volume which deals specifically with the Normandy Landings and how they are remembered and commemorated internationally. Dr. Michael dolksy not only was a contributor, but also served as one of the editors of the volume. He holds a phd from Temple University and is a historian with a joint preserve war missing in action Accounting Command Central Identification Laboratory in hawaii. Dr. Gunter bishoff is the professor of history and director of Center Austria at university of new orleans. He was a graduate student of our museums founders, and our ceo at uno. Before going to Harvard University to earn his doctorate in history. He serves as a president ial counselor, a group of renowned historians who advised dr. Mueller here at the National World war ii museum. And joining for our discussion as well is dr. John mcmanus, who is professor of American Military history 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 will be dr. Bolsky who will present his ideas and thought about the American Experience of remembering dday. Thank you, keith. First of all, i will like to say thank you to everybody here today and 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 nervous men, cluster soldiers shipped about in lastminute destruction. None of our boys are fully prepared for what seemed confronts them, and the waves break to show the sure sign. They are under withering fire. The soldiers eventually force a break in the defenses. Captain john miller joins them with such a breach. And it quickly dissolves. Theres a depiction that i gave you very briefly with a generalized tale of war on omaha beach. This is similar to what dr. Mcmanus presented yesterday. The details here have been drawn at this point from the 1998 blockbuster movie saving private ryan. It proved to be a very Popular Striking a chord in american society, and this battle continues to act as a frame for our understanding of world war ii. My question is why does dday hold such a sacred place in our understanding of the Second World War . Part of that stems from the dday films. It is the way that our society particularly chooses to understand the past. It takes a look at how people try to understand complex event of the past. We can look at several things like books and speeches and monuments and events such as this. I am choosing to talk about one part of that, and that his major movies. It provides a readily identifiable heroism. Exploring dday films show that there are several things going on in the movies as well as amongst the movies. They are sort of in conversation with each other. I am going to show how there are never to choices among these movies. We will talk a little bit about our society as well. And in particular over time, these movies have changed dday into a tale of american heroes, democratic heroes. Looking into the present, this was a major theme of president obamas address yesterday, where he called omaha the democracy beachhead. In the nostalgia that weve seen in recent decades, they were just trying to get on with things. This takes you to the end of the 1940s and john wayne. The very popular stance of the wood jima sparked hollywoods interest in the war. Right in the middle of this reemergence of the war as an object of fixation for hollywood came another movie, fighter squadron. That was in 1948. It is an actual dday movie that weld received saving private ryan. It is not particularly a good movie. It is a melodrama with fighting 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. As you can see there. Which depicts a preparation for the conduct of combat in normandy. The central character you see depicted is lieutenant joe mallory. He was an english teacher who struggle to lead his men to combat on the shores of normandy. What is 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 discussions. These early movies showed sanitized versions of the war. Theyre relatively bloodless. Americans fought as heroes. They overcome the enemy on dday. And they win the war. They created very tidy narratives for what are essentially complex 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. A dday veteran. He was 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 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. So, ok, what is going on here . What i am arguing essentially is film versions of the Second World War and dday in particular existed in a mutually influential relationship with society. Theyre influencing how society views warfare, but society influences the movies being made, as we saw with the steel helmet. 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 focused on dday is the 1956 title dday. It begins with the invasion forces. It 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 on 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 to assure success. Theres plenty to talk about transatlantic relationships. And what this movie is trying to say even though we have different opinions and we dont always rub each other the right way, we can Work Together for success. Very much a cold war issue as well in the 1950s. In the battle scene near the end, these two characters work out their differences. You can see in gangsteresque fashion, the british colonel winters takes the fight to the enemy. Unfortunately, he steps on a landmine and dies immediately. This is a digression away from the book that was the main source of the movie. In the book, he steps on the mine but survives. The filmmakers were trying to create a capstone to the British 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 and running full steam ahead. There were certain flaws in the 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. Again, by the mid1950s, 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 closely on the book of that title. There are significant differences. That is something we can talk about later. Some of the major differences like the fighting lead to some rather notable controversies. Again, we can talk about that later. The scale leans toward the epic. The movie is 1962, a production 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. Also as an aside, he saw this as a way to revive his own career. And the viability of 20th century fox, which was in dire straits because of the overproduction costs on cleopatra. The Film Producer and the director had a clash of personalities. They did not get along. It was hate at first sight. Ryan was in early screenwriter. He stepped down. One difference of opinion was darryl zanuck insisted on creating a role for his then girlfriend. She played a French Resistance agent and sex object in the film. Ryan would 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. Nevertheless, ryan himself admitted the film was a masterpiece. 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 blunder or error. The germans were even more stupid. From all this, we can only come to the conclusion that god was on our side. This is an argument that was very appealing. They captured the chaos of 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. This accomplished storytelling that he was able to portray in the movie also drew on certain themes that were popular by then. Historian Stephen Ambrose says that the film shows the triumph of democracy over dictatorship. That is certainly an undercurrent of the movie. The combination of drama triumphing over good, the seeming accuracy, all of these come together to the immense popularity of the movie. It 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. That is a scene from the battle right there. In the 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 copy. The focus on allies and enemies this is the early 60s after german rearmament. West 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. And i think 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. I would like to take a moment to talk about our alternate stories that we can tell about dday. The hero celebration movies that 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. The director, arthur hiller, 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 on the beaches. In the movie they unpackaged that and made it a story about a complete coward, and is trying to survive the war anyway possible. It wasnt very popular, but it was a movie that was out there. The navy admiral gets the idea to boost the navys reputation by proffering one of its own as 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 images 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. He is captured on film and he hits all the magazine shelves and becomes the famous face of omaha beach. In the movie. Unfortunately, it he wasnt really dead. 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 unpackaging common stories of these 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 till after vietnam, until the 1980s. However, there were references to dday out there. You did not have to depict it. You can draw on some things that were culturally frayed at the time. You could reference things that people could widely understand. I will put out there blazing saddles. I do not know if you have seen this. This is a mel brooks movie. It is a comedy. Totally irreverent. 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. To stamp out runaway decency in the west. The bad guys went out and attacked the village. Does the object of concern. What was mel brooks doing . He was drawn from something that was widely known and prevalent at that time, these dday phrases were something that people understood. Hes 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 popular 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. Yet dday in film often told a story that americans want to hear. We are good guys, were winning 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. One indication of this is a 1980 movie by sam fuller, the big red one. He wanted to make this movie back in 1958. He felt that john wayne was trying 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 john wayne would turn it into 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. Fullers film treats a small group of men through their hard fight three the mediterranean, northwest europe. 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 a more personable, a more relatable story. These guys are good guys, they are crackups, jokesters. They do good things, they save civilians in combat. Theyre very different from the germans depicted in the movie. At the end of the movie, we close off with the still smoking ovens in a nazi camp. It is very clearly setting the moral stakes for you. There is fuller himself while he is directing. One of the dday scenes. For was awarded the silver star for his actions on dday. He was there. He was a decorated vet. Chomping 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 Hays Production code, 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. This is not like some of the 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 are landing on normandy beaches, 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 the guys cowering under heavy 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