Ike: Countdown to D-Day

I have had a lifetime affinity for war movies, so much so that I enlisted in the Army. The heroism, strength and complexity of silver-screen G.I.s resonated with me. I'd like to say that I spend Memorial Day weekend overdosing on war movies so that I might remember their sacrifice, but in truth, I watch war movies any chance I get.

In my youth, my favorite scenes were of combat, the shelling, the shooting. The drama of scruffy Americans storming a pillbox or vaulting a barricade under howling fire is mesmerizing. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.

Now that I am older, I enjoy Patton at least as much for the drama of the mental process involved in commanding a vast army as for the running, jumping and killing of Huns.

Ike: Countdown to D-Day is far more cerebral than even Patton. I don't think there were any scenes of Hun killing (in fact, I'm sure there weren't). The only locations I remember from the movie are interiors, a command post, a club, an office. However, the movie was every bit as mesmerizing. Eisenhower is portrayed by Tom Selleck, a memorable actor known for forgettable movies. I like Selleck as an actor, but unlike George C. Scott, Selleck isn't known to disappear into the role.

In Ike Selleck shows great chops. Not on par with Scott (though having seen parts of Patton this weekend, Selleck clearly had the superior makeup artist. What's up with Pattons' eyebrows???), but he does capture the essence of Eisenhower's Kansas resolve, even though Selleck still looks more like Magnum than Ike.

The strength of the movie is Selleck's portrayal of Eisenhower's character. Upbraiding Patton for racialist comments about Anglo-Saxon' domination of postwar Europe, Selleck projects a powerful wave of Midwestern sincerity. When he says he sends men to die to make the world safe for Democracy, there is not a drop of irony. Selleck's Ike never raises his voice, but the persona has the inevitable quality of the tide. Surrounded by a fleet of gargantuan egos like Patton, deGaul and Mongomery, Ike was the silent, inexorable current that pushed them along to their place in history.

Ike is a strong film in and of itself, but considering that it portrays the invasion without a trace of postmodernist revision, it is nearly miraculous. Eisenhower mourns in advance those who will die, but he does not wring his hands about the futility of war. To Ike, war is not futile, and the viewer senses that he believed this crusade must be done. He does not permit himself to think of his place in history, he looks to the horizon and sees only a grievous task and sets about to do it, and in so doing, secured that very place.

Ike: Countdown to D-Day is an exceptional film, memorable in its understatement, a fitting tribute to the spirit of a great, humble man.

Tim McNabb