Review of Overlord

Just watched this on Amazon Prime and really enjoyed it. It was unusual and original. I found myself struggling to place it in the decade it was made at first. It was so authentic re the war, I thought it was just post war at first, then as the more liberal language came in , I thought it was the sixties. Turns out it was mid seventies.

The film has a wonderful dream like quality with the hero foreseeing his own death. I don't know if the black and white film is shot on Ilford FP4 or not but it seems to have all its massive range of greys from white to black in it. This combined with the music and some of the documentary footage, although quite shocking at times, makes it paradoxically a beautiful film.

Some of the documentary film was outstanding. I have never seen some of the invasion devices shown before. There was one like a huge Catherine wheel that sped on to the beach. There was another that just chewed through the barbed wire defences. Further, there was a shot from a bomber flying low over a coast line which was so clear and real it pulled you in totally to the fictive dream - it didn't have any of the usual distancing of many documentary or fiction films.

Good film - I recommend it.