Audie-T

Corrected entry: The beach in the movie is just too small in comparison to the historical Omaha Beach. When visiting it today, Omaha Beach does look much smaller because houses and a road were built, halving the original beach. But in 1944, the beach was miles in length. Because the beach is so much smaller in the movie, you can see the German machine-gunners and the US soldiers they are shooting at in the same frame. And because they are shooting from such a small distance, they can fire in long, wild bursts. So it is understandable why the beach was so small in the movie: because of artistic license. Most of the US soldiers that were killed on Omaha Beach never even saw their enemy because of the distance.

Audie-T

Corrected entry: The whole "Omaha Beach Attack" takes about 25 minutes in real-time in the film. The director does not use any visual or audio cues to indicate that more time (minutes, hours) passes between different shots. There should have been fades to black or whatever and sound fading in and out to indicate the passing of time. Historically, the assault on Omaha Beach lasted the entire morning, into the afternoon. The rushed battle in this movie, while engrossing and spectacular, does not do proper justice to the ordeal that the men on Omaha Beach lived through. While flawed in many other respects, the movie "The Longest Day" does indicate that it took them a long, long time to finally get off the beach.

Audie-T