Tom Selleck portrays General Dwight D. Eisenhower in "Ike: Countdown to D-Day." No, really. And he's excellent.
The made-for-TV movie was filmed in New Zealand and features non-stop smoking. Few women -- Queen Elizabeth (not the present monarch but her mother) and some extras at tables in a restaurant. No hanky-panky for Ike. The only compromising position was taken by Gen. Henry Miller, who talked about D-Day arrangements in mixed company over dinner at Claridge's. Since this was a big no-no, I assumed it was action to juice up the movie. It was based on actual events.
I was very moved by a scene at the end, where General Eisenhower visits the 101st Airborne troops on D-Day Eve. He talks football with them (Ike had coached football and it was a real passion) and then the camera pulls back. We don't hear the conversations but we see an enormously decent man mingling with the young men he is sending on an enormously dangerous mission.
BTW, Tom Selleck was older than the man he was portraying.
The made-for-TV movie was filmed in New Zealand and features non-stop smoking. Few women -- Queen Elizabeth (not the present monarch but her mother) and some extras at tables in a restaurant. No hanky-panky for Ike. The only compromising position was taken by Gen. Henry Miller, who talked about D-Day arrangements in mixed company over dinner at Claridge's. Since this was a big no-no, I assumed it was action to juice up the movie. It was based on actual events.
I was very moved by a scene at the end, where General Eisenhower visits the 101st Airborne troops on D-Day Eve. He talks football with them (Ike had coached football and it was a real passion) and then the camera pulls back. We don't hear the conversations but we see an enormously decent man mingling with the young men he is sending on an enormously dangerous mission.
BTW, Tom Selleck was older than the man he was portraying.