OVERLORD (Cooper, 1975)
Criterion Collection, Blu-ray, Release Date May 13, 2014
Review by Christopher S. Long
Tom Beddoes (Brian Stirner) does not
fight for glory or fantasies of heroism. The not-quite-21-year-old
Englishman believes from the moment he is drafted that he will die
fighting the Nazi menace; he writes as much in a letter to his
parents. The opening shot of the film suggests the same thing to the
audience, albeit in a somewhat hallucinatory manner. That path that
“Overlord” (1975) traces from basic training to the storming of
the beaches at Normandy is an inevitable one, rendering Tom's story
both a tragedy and a tribute to the nobility of the soldier who
stares fate square in the eyes and doesn't retreat.
Tom's perspective is really that of a
filmmaker and an audience looking back on monumental events now
receding (though never diminishing) in the past. Producer James Quinn
initially wanted to make a documentary about a new memorial intended
to commemorate the thirtieth anniversary of D-Day. After Quinn
recruited a young director named Stuart Cooper, who had developed a
critical following with the short documentary “A Test of Violence”
(1970) and his feature debut “Little Malcolm” (1974), the project
began to transform.
Cooper stuck with the initial idea to
employ documentary wartime footage from the massive archives of
Britain's venerable Imperial War Museum, but weaved a fictional
narrative (which he co-scripted with Christopher Hudson) through the
grainy shots of aerial bombardments and naval skirmishes. Some of the
archival footage is breathtaking and eerily surreal; a giant water
wheel propelled by dozens of sputtering rockets clatters across a
rocky beach before toppling over, an alien contraption almost
comically ill-suited to its environment. The layering of movie-style
sounds of gunfire and explosions to the silent footage (some of which
was taken from cameras mounted in bomb bays or on the guns of fighter
planes) sometimes undercuts the awe-inspiring ferocity of the
visuals, but that's a minor quibble.
By contrast, the scripted sequences of
Tom leaving home, going through boot camp, and biding his time before
deployment are quiet and often serene, though flash forwards remind
us of the freight train rapidly approaching. Brian Stirner portrays
Tom as a gentle, thoughtful soul, clutching his copy of “David
Copperfield” and shyly coming on to a pretty young woman (Julie
Neesam) he meets during some rare down time. His philosophical bent
proves to be a detriment when he has far too much time to think about
what the future holds, but his less introspective peers are aware of
their likely fate too; they simply don't articulate it the way Tom
does.
Cinematographer John Alcott (best known
for his collaborations with Stanley Kubrick on “A Clockwork
Orange,” “Barry Lyndon,” and “The Shining”) shoots in a
style that perfectly complements the documentary-fiction hybrid. Many
scenes with Tom hanging out with his fellow soldiers or saying
goodbye to his parents feel like kitchen-sink naturalism, but the
film sometimes abruptly veers into abstraction (slow-motion, slightly
out-of-focus shots of soldiers running) or stops for a meticulously
crafted painterly composition: a low-angle shot of Tom peering over a
hill with thick white clouds drifting above him (both beautiful and
completely unaware of him) is particularly memorable.
“Overlord” won some festival awards
at the time, but failed to pick up American distribution, largely
disappearing until it was resuscitated and released a few decades later. There are numerous British films about soldiers and citizens
maintaining a stiff upper lip during wartime; “Overlord” may not
be the very best (Powell and Pressburger are tough competition), but
it is certainly one of the boldest and most innovative. You've never
seen anything quite like it. Unless you've seen it, of course. And
with this Blu-ray upgrade of Criterion's previous SD release, there's
no reason for you not to.
Video:
The film is presented in its original
1.66:1 aspect ratio. Since “Overlord” intercuts a great deal of
documentary footage into its narrative material, the video quality
can vary from source to source, but I can't imagine anyone being
bothered by the slightly degraded or damaged image in some of the war
shots. The image quality is consistently strong in the material
photographed by John Alcott and this high-def transfer brings a lot
of detail into sharp relief. Black-and-white contrast is meant to be
soft and slightly gauzy in most scenes and the 1080p transfer
preserves it all with a needed touch of subtlety.
Audio:
The linear Pcm Mono audio track sounds
somewhat sparse, but that's by design. Dialogue is crisply mixed.
Some of the war sound effects are mixed quite loudly, perhaps a bit
too much so at times, but I'm sure that's also by design. Optional
English subtitles support the English audio.
Extras:
Criterion has imported all of the
extras from its 2007 SD release of “Overlord.”
The film is accompanied by a commentary
track by director Stuart Cooper and lead actor Brian Stirner. Their
commentaries were recorded separately. Cooper has much more
information about the overall production of the film, but Stirner's
unique perspective is enlightening as well.
“Mining the Archive” (23 min.) is
an interview with Roger Smither and Anne Fleming, film archivists at
the Imperial War Museum. The Museum's archives play a major role in
the film and they have plenty to say about the way archival footage
was introduced and how much the Museum served as a research source
for the movie.
The Museum didn't just provide film
footage. They also had extensive historical documents, including
journals written by soldiers who participated in the D-Day invasion.
The disc includes readings by Brian Stirner from the journals of Sgt.
Edward Robert McCush (9 min.) and Sgt. Finlay Campbell (12 min.) We
also get a brief introduction by Stuart Cooper (2 min.)
The shot feature “Capa Influences
Cooper” discussed how photographer Robert Capa, who took
photographs on Omaha Beach on D-Day, influenced the look of the film.
This feature consists of audio commentary by Stuart Cooper played
over footage from the film and some of the few remaining Capa
photographs from D-Day (8 min.)
“Germany Calling” (2 min.) is a
1941 propaganda film that played before many films released in
England during wartime. It cut footage of Nazis (most, perhaps all,
taken from Leni Riefenstahl's “Triumph of the Will”) to comic
music, speeds it up, and runs it backward to mock the goosestepping
menace. Tom sees bits of this film during a scene set in a movie
theater in “Overlord.”
“Cameramen at War” (1943, 15 min.)
is a documentary by the British Ministry of Information (credited as
“Compiled by Len Lye”) which talks about the courage of the men
who embedded with the troops to shoot film. D.W. Griffith is
identified in one scene.
“A Test of Violence” (1969, 14
min.) is Stuart Cooper's debut short film that won multiple festival
awards. It is nominally about Spanish artist Juan Genovés,
though it's a very abstract piece that recreates the violent scenes
Genovés painted.
The disc also includes a Theatrical
Trailer (3 min.)
The 28-page insert booklet includes an
essay by critic Kent Jones, an excerpt from a presentation given by
Imperial War Museum archivist Roger Smither, and excerpts from the
novelization of “Overlord” written by Stuart Cooper and
Christopher Hudson, co-screenwriter of the film.
Final Thoughts:
“Overlord” can feel a bit too
portentous at times, but it is a sincerely moving portrait of a
soldier bracing himself for the inevitable tragedy of wartime.
Criterion hasn't added any new features from its 2007 SD release, but
the high-def transfer is a strong one, as usual, and the original
collection of extras was plenty good enough.
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