The director Stuart Cooper decided to tell a story about a World War II recruit training for the Normandy invasion. He ended up mixing actual war footage and carefully filmed black and white recreations. It's an impressive accomplishment I just wish I would have liked the film a little better.
Cooper should get a lot of credit for sorting through a bunch of World War II footage and picking out film clips that weren't beat up and scratched to hell. The cinematographer John Alcott used old cameras and camera lens to match the lighting of the actual war footage and except for a couple of scenes it all looks very seamless.
The problem I have with this film is the central story that revolves around the young recruit and his premonition of death that he has throughout the film. The actor playing the recruit drains all the emotion out of the character which makes it extremely difficult to work up any sympathy for him. I can appreciate that Cooper didn't want to load the film up with a lot of overblown drama but I don't think it would have hurt to have a little emotion in the film especially from the central character.
Overlord is an impressive technical achievement but it doesn't have much heart to it.
85 minutes.
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