Reviewed by Neil Davey
Stars Brian Stiner, Davyd Harries, Nicholas Ball, Julie Neesam,
Sam Sewell, John Franklyn-Robbins, Stella Tanner,
Harry Shacklock, David Scheuer
Written by Stuart Cooper & Christopher Hudson
UK certification 15 | UK RRP £19.99
DVD Region 2 | Runtime 85 minutes
Directed by Stuart Cooper
The reissue of Overlord is a chance to catch-up with one of British cinema's genuine curiosities. The 70s was not a great period for British movies as a whole — sex comedies, sex comedies, the Children's Film Foundation and, er, sex comedies — so Overlord must have stuck out like a sore proverbial.
According to the official blurb, it's a "meditation on the sacrifice and expendability of soldiers" during the Second World War and, particularly, the titular Normandy invasion. It's the structure that's interesting though, with Cooper intercutting his own story — about a shy young soldier Tom (Stiner) — with genuine archive footage from the Imperial War Museum's own collection. The new footage is shot in beautiful black and white and it blends seamlessly with the real footage: unsurprising as Cooper and the museum spent some three years finding the perfect archive shots.
Time has been relatively kind to the film, although the release of Saving Private Ryan — which was perhaps influenced by Overlord? — undermines some of the raw power and there's still a little too much of the Cholmondley-Warner clipped vowels and cheeky chappie, working class banter that riddled so many British war movies of the 50s and 60s. But the final emotional punch is still apparent, Tom's sense of foreboding is palpable and the genuine footage is remarkable. Definitely worth seeking out during this limited run or on its DVD release next month.
EXTRAS *** A commentary by director Stuart Cooper and an interview with co-star Nicholas Ball provide decent insight into the documentary and the big day itself, and the tribute to cinematographer John Alcott is worth a look. The interview with Roger Smith, keeper of the Archive at the Imperial War Museum and the tour of the archives themselves are unlikely to be of much interest to anyone other than fanatical researchers. The final extras are a photo gallery and theatrical trailer.