Before we drown in statistics - three languages, four directors, 43 major roles and 23,000 extras - it's worth remembering this epic recreation of the Normandy landings would never have been made without Darryl F Zanuck. Bouncing back from a string of flops and a minor stroke to give an ailing Fox one of its biggest hits, the ex-honcho's extravagant signature is on every frame of this three-hour epic.

After Saving Private Ryan's gory revisionism, Day's sanitised celebration of mass slaughter feels as old-fashioned as its gung-ho jingoism. The parade of A-list cameos undermines any attempts at documentary realism and it takes so long to get going, it could have been titled The Longest Build-Up.

For sheer chutzpah, though, you just can't beat it, the star wattage and awesome pre-CG spectacle making this the Gone With The Wind of World War Two movies - bloated, flawed but totally irresistible, a landmark in Hollywood history.

DVD Extras:

At this price you'd expect more than two docs and some trailers, though the former are definitely worth a gander. The first, taken from Fox TV's Backstory series, is a pretty exhaustive account of the protracted production, with lots of fascinating archive footage and talking-head interviews from Robert Wagner, Red Buttons and Roddy McDowall.The second, longer doc follows a cigar-chomping Zanuck as he returns to France in 1969 to stroll around the real locations of the battles he restaged in Corsica eight years earlier.Although they're clearly faked for the camera (check out the beret-sporting veteran who just happens to be passing), Zanuck's detailed recollections - intercut with scenes from the main feature - certainly bear out his claim that D-Day was "the most hazardous undertaking in military history". Just as revealing, however, are the lascivious leers this notorious old lech throws in the direction of a buxom waitress.