Something more affecting than a mere curiosity, Overlord is a British film from 19075 shot, with good reason, in black and white. Writer/director Stuart Cooper, working from a screenplay by Christopher Hudson, bulks out his film with at least twenty minutes of stock footage of the D-Day landings; the effect is jarring at times, but by the climax, manages to create a you-are-there verisimilitude that belies its micro-budget. The storyline follows Tom (Brian Striner) as he takes leave of his family and joins up with the Allied forces for the dangerous assault, allowing Cooper to move backwards and forwards in time through his recollections at the point of battle. The stock footage is fascinating, unearthing arcane technologies uses and featuring vehicles rarely seen in conventional WWII movies. Overlord has a surreal poetry about it; with Kubrick’s cinematographer John Alcott creating some stunning images, Overlord is a real find; as Kubrick pointed out, the only weakness is that it isn’t twice as long.
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