Overlord

Special features practically outdo the film
"Overlord" is a curious film that blends archival footage into a fictional account of a typical British soldier preparing for the D-Day invasion. While I found "Overlord" lacking as a narrative, it was a worthy cinematic experiment and should be of particular interest to anyone interested in World War II.

Made in England in 1975 with the help of the Imperial War Museum, "Overlord" was not released in the United States until 2006. This long overdue DVD release helps atone somewhat for the film's long absence from North American markets.

"Overlord" is a short sometimes choppy story that manages as well as might be expected to integrate actual footage of Nazis and Allied troops in action including bombing raids and their devastating results. While the focus of the story is on one soldier's enlistment in the British Army and training for D-Day, it is an at times powerful meditation on war's effect on individuals. "Overlord" specifically examines the mindset of...

"A smaller and smaller part of a bigger and bigger machine...." (3.5 stars)
One young British soldier, who celebrates his 20th birthday while training for the impending D-Day invasion, writes a letter to his parents and tells them that as time passes, he feels like a smaller and smaller part of a bigger and bigger machine.

Being a small component of a massive device is the central idea behind Stuart Cooper's "Overlord," an odd, hazy, child's-fever-dream of a movie that uses staged black-and-white scenes interspersed with actual archival footage from World War II.

We follow Tom (Brian Stirner) through a drab, dispiriting round of basic training; his experiences are interspersed with separate scenes of battle, of invasion and aftermath to illustrate events going on "meanwhile" all around him, events leading up to Normandy.

The movie is a truly unique visual experience. John Alcott shot the storyline scenes (just before he began work on "Barry Lyndon") and the movie has a look not unlike "The Elephant Man," or its thematic...

EXTRAORDINARY
This incredible film is a dreamlike recreation that mixes real vintage footage with original film as it follows an ordinary young British bloke from his military induction to D Day.

Wonderfully evocative on every level. The photography is extraordinary. Powerful images shimmer next to the sublime. The very human dilemma of how to make sense of life and war has never been told better. A great film.

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