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Overlord

EMAILPRINTJanus Films

Overlord reviews
88
8.0 User Score:

Movie Info

Genre(s): Drama  |  Foreign  |  War

Written by: Stuart Cooper

Directed by: Stuart Cooper

Release Date:
Theatrical: July 14, 2006
DVD: April 17, 2007

Running Time: 85 minutes, B/W

Origin: UK

Summary

RATING: Not Rated

Starring Brian Stirner, Davyd Harries, Nicholas Ball, Julie Neesam, Sam Sewell, John Franklyn-Robbins, Stella Tanner, and Harry Shacklock

Winner of the Silver Bear at the 1975 Berlin Film Festival, Overlord tells one soldier's story from his induction into the British army to the battle on the beaches at Normandy on D-Day, June 6, 1944.

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Unlike "Saving Private Ryan" and other dramatizations based on D-Day, Overlord is an intimate film, one that focuses closely on Tom Beddoes (Brian Stirner), who enters the British army, goes through basic training and is one of the first ashore on D-Day. (Reviewed in 2004)

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90

The New York Times Dana Stevens

Like its hero, who is brave without a trace of bravado, Overlord is unusually quiet and thoughtful. The scale and ambition of combat movies has usually been epic, but this one is disarmingly lyrical and subjective.

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90

Village Voice Michael Atkinson

It's still a feat of period filmmaking. More than that, Overlord's revivification of a wasteland Europe offers up a powerful whip lesson for the postwar complacent: that the waging of war, even this most romanticized of conflicts, means bringing a corpse-mountain hell to someone's home neighborhood.

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88

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

Though made 31 years after D-Day, the dramatic scenes have the period look of a '40s movie, which links them perfectly with the stunning archival footage.

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88

TV Guide Staff (Not credited)

The overriding themes of the film are never broadly stated but are subtly revealed, and the horror and reality of war are quietly played out on both the human and panoramic levels with disturbing effect.

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80

Variety Staff (Not credited)

US director Stuart Cooper gives it the right understated, unheroic feel. (Review of Original Release)

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80

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

Overlord feels like a small but vivid tragedy inside an epic container.

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75

San Francisco Chronicle G. Allen Johnson

Overlord is an ambitious, important experiment that has come to light after three decades of neglect.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 8.0 (out of 10) based on 5 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Jonathan M. gave it a10:
Superb war movie. The use of original film (and stuck from the old nitrate stock) is wonderful. How can such a classic only now come to light? (Well, remember Melville and "Billy Budd.")

Rich L. gave it a10:
A stunning and unique movie. Hopefully the re-release will give this haunting underrrated film the recognition it so deserves.

Chelsea S. gave it a10:
I have been waiting for this film to be released for years. A chilling, bleak and beautiful war story that's completely unlike any other war movie you will see. Highly recommended.

Brian F. gave it a10:
This film has haunted me ever since I first saw it 31 years ago.An original and mesmerising work of art.What a change in opinion too from the critics!

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