Not badly done, this story of the way Dwight D. Eisenhower managed to pull off the risky Normandy landings in 1944. It shows its low TV budget but I suppose we can do without still another majestic spectacle and settle for a little more in the way of a character study.

Tom Selleck as Ike is surprisingly good. He's an unpretentious and likable guy, a hunk to women maybe but he seems to be accessible as a buddy too. That cracked voice maybe.

Here he shrugs off his lackadaisical Magnum P. I. persona and does quite a good job of being Eisenhower, more adaptable than anyone might have thought. He's put on a few pounds for the role, had the hair shaved off his frontal area, and deepened his voice. There's another thing too. Eisenhower smoked like a volcano, and this is shown in the movie. He's constantly puffing away, as are many of the other characters. Smoking cigarettes wasn't the stigma then that it has now become. Butts were in your package of K rations, along with all-American chewing gum. The writers and producers were right to leave out some of Ike's pecadillos, like his affair with his aide, Kay Sommersby. There's no room for romance in this compact drama. But the smoking belongs. It's even used as a gag at Montgomery's expense, which I won't explain. It would have been tempting to drop all the cigarettes from the film and make it more PC. The film makers ought to be complimented on retaining them.

The script of course doesn't give him any flaws. He's the hero after all. He never loses his temper. He doesn't browbeat anyone. Well, he DOES let his weather man, Stagg, have a couple of powerful jabs. He has doubts about the invasion schedule but not about himself. We see him doing one of the things Ike did best. He managed to pull together a team of disputatious colleagues and subordinates who were jealous of one another. (He did the same thing as president; he was like your nice uncle.)

Every story has to have some sort of obstructionist. In this one it's Charles DeGaulle, who disapproves of Ike's plan and refuses to cooperate with the landings -- something that didn't happen in real life. He and Ike have an argument about who should make the announcement of the landings. It's left unresolved, an editorial imperfection. DeGaulle wasn't easy to work with. Winston Churchill remarked of him, "The heaviest cross I have to bear is the Cross of Lorraine."

Selleck gets good support from the rest of the cast, whom we get to know fairly well. Especially neat is General Omar Bradley, even less pretentious than Ike. (Bradley is played by James Remar, whose name sounds as if it ought to mean something when spelled backwards, but it doesn't.) Man, you have to put these guys next to the pompous, prop-carrying MacArthur and his florid prose to appreciate their humility.

Ike went on after the war to serve as president of Columbia University and was later elected president of the US for two terms. He was no more colorful as a politician than as a general, but he took us through eight years of the worst part of the Cold War, finally brought an end to the Korean conflict, and foresaw the rise of what he called "the military-industrial complex." A decent guy, and this is a pretty decent movie about a couple of extremely tense days in his life.

The plans for the D-Day invasion is being set closely consulting with Winston Churchill. Dwight D. Eisenhower (Tom Selleck) has to corral the disparate personalities on the task at hand. Gen. Montgomery wants a slashing strike but must accept the broad invasion. Patton has caused international tension with his off-the-cuff public comments and Ike sidelines him as a diversion. The predictions of casualties are dire. The plan is besieged by equipment shortages, near-discovery by the Nazis, delay, and a fear of failure. On June 6, 1944, Ike sets off the biggest amphibious assault ever attempted.

Tom Selleck is bald and without his mustache. He still looks like Tom Selleck. I don't necessarily buy him physically but he has that commanding presence. This is not an action movie. It is a character study. There are several strong characters and each one is played competently. Bruce Phillips is great as Montgomery. I like all the behind the scene jockeying and the back story.

Tom Selleck gives a dynamite performance as Eisenhower in this whitewashed hagiography which concerns itself solely the politics leading up to D-Day. While it is well written, it is not particularly cinematic or dramatic and Selleck's performance cannot disguise that entirely.

Selleck is shot in a pearlescent light and the other roles, when they come up against him, are designed to demonstrate Ike's humility, concern and prescient correctness in all things. Churchill seems grumpy and futile; Patton an ass. Only Montgomery seems to come off well.

Overall, not the worst movie ever made about D-Day, but a few battle shots might have helped. The choice to leave them out was, of course, deliberate. Still, if the idea was to produce a character study, a bit more honesty is called for.