The Long Day’s Dying 1968

Three British paratroopers are cut off from their unit and drift behind enemy lines, seeking any chance to head back to safety. They take shelter in a deserted farmhouse, waiting for their Sergeant to return after venturing out to locate their unit. The group is composed of Tom Cooper, a world-weary cynic; John, a well-educated thinker who despises war; and Cliff, an eager soldier who loves his work. All three are highly trained professionals whose precision and discipline remain intact, even as their personal doubts and fatigue gnaw at them.

Two German soldiers approach the farmhouse, and the paratroopers move to action, dispatching both attackers. The second foe is pursued and toyed with by the trio before John kills him at close range, an act that leaves him haunted by what it costs to survive.

As they sit down to a meal, they are startled by a third German—Helmut—who suddenly captures them. The British soon regain the upper hand and take Helmut prisoner, but the English-speaking German uses charm and wit to manipulate his captors into keeping him alive. The fragile balance tips again as the group presses on in search of their Sergeant, only to find him dead in the woods, his throat cruelly slit.

Undeterred, the men push forward, hoping to find their way back to Allied lines. They stumble upon another farmhouse, where a trio of Germans is sheltering. With caution, they approach and shoot, only to discover that those Germans are already dead, a grim reminder of how quickly luck can turn on the battlefield.

After spending the night inside the house, they resume their march toward safety, but encounter a German patrol along the way. In the ensuing clash, all three Germans are killed, yet Cliff is fatally wounded in the fighting, the wound sealing his fate on the move toward the front.

John and Tom Cooper reach the front with Helmut in tow, but nearby British troops, misidentifying them as German, open fire and mortally wound Tom. Both of them are wounded, and they take cover together in a muddy ditch. With exhaustion gnawing at him, John resolves to end Helmut’s life with a small skewer he’s always carried, a grim act borne of the toll of combat.

In a final, harrowing moment of fatigue and trauma, John staggers into the open and proclaims himself a pacifist before the British soldiers, already overwhelmed by fear and confusion, open fire once more and shoot him dead.