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Overlord
Metascore
88 out of 100

Universal acclaim - based on 8 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 8 out of 8
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 8
  3. Negative: 0 out of 8
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  1. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    100
    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)
  2. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Michael Atkinson
    90
    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.
  3. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Dana Stevens
    90
    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.
  4. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Jack Mathews
    88
    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.
  5. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Staff (Not credited)
    88
    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.
  6. Variety
    Reviewed by: Staff (Not credited)
    80
    US director Stuart Cooper gives it the right understated, unheroic feel. (Review of Original Release)
  7. Wall Street Journal
    Reviewed by: Joe Morgenstern
    80
    Overlord feels like a small but vivid tragedy inside an epic container.
  8. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: G. Allen Johnson
    75
    Overlord is an ambitious, important experiment that has come to light after three decades of neglect.
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User Reviews

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User Score
8.0 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 5 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4 out of 4
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 4
  3. Negative: 0 out of 4
  1. JonathanM.
    10
    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.")… Full Review »
  2. RichL.
    10
    A stunning and unique movie. Hopefully the re-release will give this haunting underrrated film the recognition it so deserves.
  3. ChelseaS.
    10
    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.… Full Review »
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