“Ike: Countdown to D-Day”
[ 1/2] (three and one-half stars)
Monday night at 8 on A&E
AS Dwight Eisenhower, Tom Selleck is smokin’!
Literally.
Selleck burns through a couple of cartons worth of cigarettes in “Ike: Countdown to D-Day,” but it’s all in the name of authenticity.
Evidently, Ike smoked like a chimney – which probably explains the heart problems that plagued him later in life, particularly during his presidency. But A&E’s movie takes placelong before that, in the weeks preceding the allied invasion of Europe – otherwise known as D-Day, June 6, 1944 – as Eisenhower and his top generals apply the finishing touches to their invasion plans.
Premiering Monday – Memorial Day – on the same weekend the new NationalWorld War IIMemorial is tobe dedicated inWashington(that’s happening Saturday afternoon), “Ike” reminds us once again of the enormous sacrifices that were made in lives and blood to liberate Europe from the Nazis.
And then there was the invasion it self – an incredibly complex undertak ing, the largest of its kind in human history, and the type of achievement that never ceases to awe, especially from the vantage point of the present day, when it is easy to question whether we still have the ability to accomplish the impossible.
As “Ike” demonstrates, the success of Operation Overlord was never assured either, and in the final hours before it started, Eisenhower’s decision to order the vast invasion force into action hung entirely on an iffy weather forecast.
It’s a moment of considerable suspense in “Ike,” which succeeds throughout in communicating the gravity of the situation without ever resorting to hammy scenery-chewing.
The movie also manages to exude good old American self-confidence without swaggering – which is an apt description for the way Selleck plays Eisenhower.
Without his mustache and with his hair shorn to resemble Ike’s greatly receded hairline, Selleck, surprisingly, is the spitting image of Eisenhower.
It’s a heroic, understated performance, aided by co-stars who include James Remar as Gen. Omar Bradley; Timothy Bottoms as Eisenhower’s chief of staff, Gen. Walter Bedell Smith; and Gerald McRaney, who has been promoted from Major Dad to Gen. Patton.
They all wear their uniforms comfortably to tell a story that’s still worth telling after 60 years.