10 Greatest D-Day Movies, Ranked

Pressure looks at the revelation that the attack had to be delayed one day because of weather conditions, but it took one man an enormous amount of persuasion to convince the Allied Forces to delay the attack. With battles on the beaches and fights in the war rooms, as well as love stories and even an attack by monsters in one of the more horrific D-Day movies ever told, there are a lot of options for people wanting to see movies about this important single battle in World War II.

10 The Big Red One (1980)

The Big Red One was a D-Day war movie from 1980 that was written and directed by Samuel Fuller, based on his time in the United States Army's 16th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division, which was nicknamed The Big Red One. Lee Marvin stars in the lead role as an unnamed Sergeant, while the rest of the cast includes a few familiar faces, including Mark Hamill and Robert Carradine.

The plot follows the squad through the entire European war, from North Africa and Sicily to Omaha Beach on D-Day. The Omaha sequence is just one part in what is technically a war diary. The original version clocked in at 113 minutes, but Fuller's full version was 162 minutes and premiered at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival. Roger Ebert praised the original movie, but gave the extended cut a perfect score.

9 Ike: Countdown to D-Day (2004)

Brendan Fraser isn't the first person to play General Dwight Eisenhower in a movie about D-Day, as Tom Selleck played him in 2004's Ike: Countdown to D-Day. This was a made-for-television historical war drama originally aired on A&E. Directed by Robert Harmon, the movie dramatizes the 90 days leading up to Operation Overlord and Eisenhower's role as Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force.

This movie focuses on command-level decision-making, which is similar to Pressure, but without the consideration of the weather conditions. It is more about when the attack would take place and how the Allied Forces would storm the beaches. Ike: Countdown to D-Day earned multiple Primetime Emmy nominations, including Outstanding Made for Television Movie, Outstanding Directing, Outstanding Art Direction, and Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing.

8 Storming Juno (2010)

Storming Juno is a 2010 movie that is a Canadian docudrama by director Tim Wolochatiuk that follows the Canadian assault on Juno Beach on June 6, 1944, blending dramatic reenactment with veteran interviews. The story follows three real soldiers. Paratrooper Cpl. Dan Hartigan was dropped behind enemy lines the night before. Lt. Bill Grayson of the Regina Rifles fought on the beach. Sgt. Leo Gariepy was the commander of the only one of 19 tanks to complete its mission.

This movie debuted on the History Channel in the United States, and it also included an interactive online D-Day archive that had interviews with more than 30 veterans. This is an important release that reminds people of Canada's overlooked contribution to D-Day.

7 D-Day The Sixth of June (1956)

In 1956, D-Day the Sixth of June hit theaters, directed by Henry Koster, based on Lionel Shapiro's 1955 novel The Sixth of June. Robert Taylor stars as Capt. Brad Parker, a desk-bound American, Richard Todd stars as Lieutenant Colonel John Wynter, a British commando (and himself a real Normandy paratrooper veteran), and Dana Wynter stars as Valerie Russell, the third part of the love triangle in this wartime romance.

The movie follows Parker and Wynter on their way to Normandy, and the movie flashes back to their relationship with the same woman. The plot is all about romance, and the relationship between the two men, and the D-Day combat itself only happens in the final 10 minutes of the movie. The film has an IMDb score of 5.9, and D-Day is just the final destination of the story.

6 The Americanization of Emily (1964)

The Americanization of Emily is another wartime romance, this one released in 1964 by director Arthur Hiller, with a screenplay by Paddy Chayefsky. This is a black-and-white dark comedy anti-war film that stars Garner as Lt. Cmdr. Charles Madison and Julie Andrews as Emily Barham, a British war widow. The dark comedy comes from an unstable Admiral Jessup (Melvyn Douglas), who wants to create a publicity stunt to make sure the first dead man on Omaha Beach is a sailor.

Both Madison and Cmdr. Bus Cummings (James Coburn) are sent as a film crew to Omaha Beach for the D-Day attack. Madison ends up as the first American casualty as a result. The Americanization of Emily was nominated for two Oscars, one for Best Art Direction (Black-and-White) and the second for Best Cinematography (Black-and-White). It was controversial in 1964 for its biting anti-war satire and willingness to mock military heroism, but it remains a fantastic film in the genre.

5 Overlord (2018)

Overlord is not a war movie. Instead, this is a supernatural horror movie that takes place during the events of D-Day. Directed by Julius Avery, Overlord is an alternate-history action-horror that starts the night before D-Day, which is named after the historical Operation Overlord, the code name for the Normandy landings.

On the night before D-Day, a squad of American paratroopers is dropped behind enemy lines in Nazi-occupied France to destroy a radio tower atop a church. They discover an underground Nazi lab conducting horrific experiments, creating undead soldiers. While this is a monster movie set on D-Day, it was also a huge surprise, and it ended up with an 80% Rotten Tomatoes score, with critics calling it a fun movie for B-movie fans.

4 36 Hours (1965)

36 Hours is a war thriller written and directed by George Seaton, based on the Roald Dahl 1944 story Beware of the Dog. James Garner stars as Maj. Jefferson Pike, a U.S. intelligence officer who attends Eisenhower's final invasion briefing. However, he is sent to Lisbon on June 1, 1944, and ends up abducted by the Germans. He wakes up in a fake hospital, is told it is now 1950, and is told he has amnesia, so he recalls D-Day's location and the original June 5 invasion date.

36 Hours has an IMDb rating of 7.3, and critics have called it an ingenious thriller. This is a very different D-Day war movie because it is more about Allied deception and counter-intelligence, and is more of an espionage spy movie than a straight war film.

3 Pressure (2026)

Pressure is the 2026 D-Day war movie that stars Brendan Fraser as General Dwight Eisenhower and Andrew Scott as Group Captain James Stagg, the Allied chief meteorologist. This is a war drama directed by Anthony Maras, based on David Haig's 2014 stage play, which dramatizes the 72 hours before D-Day. General Eisenhower originally planned the invasion for June 5, 1944, but Stagg came in the day before and said the weather would doom the invasion.

Pressure's early reviews have been overwhelmingly positive, sitting at 86% on Rotten Tomatoes with a 95% audience score at this time. Critics praised both Fraser and Scott's performances, and the movie received a lot of credit for how it kept the tension high, even when taking place in the war rooms and behind the scenes.

2 The Longest Day (1962)

Released in 1962, The Longest Day is a D-Day movie based on Cornelius Ryan's 1959 non-fiction book of the same name. The movie has an incredible cast, including John Wayne, Robert Mitchum, Henry Fonda, Richard Burton, Sean Connery, Robert Wagner, Red Buttons, Eddie Albert, Rod Steiger, and Paul Anka. What makes this stand out is that it shows D-Day from every point of view.

The Longest Day tells the story of June 6, 1944, from American, British, French Resistance, and German perspectives, the biggest D-Day movie ever made. The movie won an Oscar for Best Special Effects and Best Cinematography (Black-and-White). It was also nominated for Best Picture, Best Art Direction (Black-and-White), and Best Film Editing.

1 Saving Private Ryan (1998)

The best movie ever made about D-Day is also the best war movie of all time. Directed by Steven Spielberg, the movie stars Tom Hanks as Capt. John Miller, as he leads a unit of soldiers onto the beaches of Normandy with one single mission. Their job is to find a soldier named Private Ryan and rescue him to return home after his brothers died in action, and he is the last surviving sibling.

Saving Private Ryan has a 27-minute opening scene, which remains the most realistic and devastating battle scene ever filmed for a movie. This war movie never flinches, and it shows the true horrors of war. This war movie won five Oscars in 11 nominations, but it will always be remembered as the biggest snub in Academy Awards history when Shakespeare in Love beat it for Best Picture.