Overlord (1975 film)

Overlord
Directed by Stuart Cooper
Produced by James Quinn
Written by Stuart Cooper
Christopher Hudson
Starring Brian Stirner
Davyd Harries
Music by Paul Glass
Cinematography John Alcott
Edited by Jonathan Gili
Release date
  • 1975 (1975)
Running time
 85 minutes
Country United Kingdom
Language English

Overlord is a 1975 black-and-white film written and directed by Stuart Cooper. Set around the D-Day invasion ('Operation Overlord'), Overlord is a war film about a young soldier's meditations on being part of the war machinery, and his premonitions of death. The film was entered into the 25th Berlin International Film Festival, where it won the Silver Bear - Special Jury Prize.[1]

Plot

Beginning with a premonition of his death, the film follows a young everyman through his call up to the East Yorkshire Regiment, his training, his meeting a young girl, his journey to France, and his death on D-Day at Sword. Director Cooper also includes footage of the London Blitz and bombing of Europe to emphasise the events leading up to the invasion and the comparatively short distance between England and France.

Cast

Production

Stuart Cooper had originally intended to make a documentary film about the Overlord embroidery tapestry.[2] As he researched the events of the Normandy landings at the Imperial War Museum he decided on making a film of a young man's journey from call up to coffin.

About half of Overlord is contemporary footage shot for the film, and about half of it is archival footage from British training missions and the invasion itself. Cooper and his cinematographer, John Alcott, tried to create a consistent look when filming the contemporary footage and to this end they employed old Kodak film stock and World War II-era original German 1930s military camera lenses.

The film originally failed to get US theatrical distribution and was only shown there in select screenings and on television. In 2006, the film saw its first US release through Janus Films and in early 2008 a re-mastered edition was re-released in cinemas (on 1 February, with a launch at the Institute of Contemporary Arts) and on DVD (on 3 March) in the UK.

It was released as part of the Criterion Collection in 2007.[3][4]

Presenting a screening of the film at the 2009 Sydney Film Festival, director Stuart Cooper said that the Imperial War Museum allowed him access to millions of feet of their film including original nitrate negatives. Cooper was also granted access to diaries of soldiers who were present at the landing that he incorporated into the screenplay. Parts of the film were shot at Aldershot.

Reception

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film received an approval rating of 93% based on 14 reviews, with an average rating of 8.1/10.[5] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 88 out of 100 based on 8 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[6] Roger Ebert gave the film a full four stars upon its re-release, and argued that it "combines its newsreel and fictional footage so effectively that it has a greater impact than all fiction, or all documentary, could have achieved."[7]

References

  1. ↑ "Berlinale 1975: Prize Winners". berlinale.de. Retrieved 11 July 2010.
  2. ↑ Cooper, Stuart (18 January 2008). "A camera instead of a rifle". Guardian. Retrieved 16 August 2009.
  3. ↑ The Criterion Collection: Overlord by Stuart Cooper
  4. ↑ Amazon listing
  5. ↑ "Overlord (1975)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango. Retrieved 12 September 2018.
  6. ↑ "Overlord [re-release] Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 12 September 2018.
  7. ↑ Ebert, Roger (1 June 2006). "Overlord Movie Review & Film Summary (2006)". Retrieved 1 September 2016.
  • Overlord on IMDb
  • Overlord at Rotten Tomatoes
  • Overlord at Metacritic
  • Overlord at AllMovie
  • Cooper, Stuart (18 January 2008). "A camera instead of a rifle". The Guardian. Retrieved 2 February 2008.
  • A synopsis of the film from the Brattle Theater blog
  • SFGate article on the rediscovery of the film
  • Review of The Criterion Collection's 2014 Restoration of Overlord on Blu-ray
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