--Chloe, Overlord
"A Thousand-Year Reich needs thousand-year soldiers."
--Captain Wafner, Overlord
As a science fiction film, an alternate history film, and a war film with elements of horror, Overlord is brilliant both when it comes to its concepts and execution. Wolfenstein-esque in the way it utilizes its Nazi antagonists, it starts as what appears to be a more standard but very well-crafted war drama, and around 45 minutes in, horror starts to creep in as genres collide. Overlord focuses on the day just before Operation Overlord, the offensive against Nazi Europe otherwise called D-Day, as well as the cinematic trope of Nazi experimentation on the human body--but this trope is not wasted here thanks to an excellent cast that is actually used properly and a very serious tone. While the plot points are almost certainly not going to be unfamiliar in concept to people who have played lots of video games or viewed many movies, the overall film exemplifies how execution can make it so that familiar story elements are not a mediocrity or a hindrance.
Production Values
An unflinching use of violence and the careful joint use of practical and digital effects that are incredible for a modern film with a budget of only 38 million dollars. Unbroken shots like when Boyce leaves the plane near the beginning put the aesthetic budget to great use; the shot starts well before he is pushed off and continues as he falls and desperately tries to activate his parachute, all the way until he reaches water below. Dead allied soldiers hanging from parachutes stuck on trees in the orange glow of a distant fire is seen shortly after. Cinematography and visuals like this help any film stand strong, but since war stories often have very limited story structures available to them without genre blending, this helps Overlord all the more (and there is the aforementioned genre blending as well). At key moments, there are some very thematically fitting parts to the soundtrack from Jed Kurzel, who scored Alien: Covenant, which likewise has a mostly genetic soundtrack with a specific track or two that absolutely helped elevate its scene, such as the one analyzed here [1].
The cast also makes the most of their roles despite many of them not quite being mainstream actors/actresses, with the now-exception of Wyatt Russel after Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Jovan Adepo makes a great lead actor as Edward Boyce, one of the primary Allied soldier characters and the one the story follows most closely. He has a distinct arc that involves his worldview and habits shifting in a way that does not compromise the most important parts of his ideology. Other presences include Mathilde Ollivier as the local French woman Chloe and Wyatt Russel as Corporal Ford, who might not get as much development as Boyce, but they and the others, even the Nazi villains, act their characters with a high degree of talent. What could have been executed as an intentionally or unintentionally comedic movie maintains its gravitas in large part thanks to the performances.
Story
Some spoilers are below.
Right before D-Day, a plane's worth of paratroopers aim to destroy a radio-jamming tower that will interfere with the beach landings at Normandy, with only a few making it to the ground below. The group is unexpectedly seen by a local woman whom they soon notice is very hostile to the occupying Germans. Her parents, like so many other locals, have been killed in a series of secret experiments conducted in a nearby underground area that happens to be underneath the site of the radio-jamming tower. The soldiers slowly discover hints as to what the Nazis have been doing to the villagers with a special tar they found. With D-Day coming, the stakes for the mission are revealed to be higher than anyone expected.
Intellectual Content
At least twice before the horror becomes more prominent alongside the military drama/action, two separate characters say that being like the Nazis is necessary to defeat them, even if they do not use those exact words. The sergeant in the opening scene on the plane says the Allies have to be as "rotten" as the Nazis, a hypocritical, idiotic stance echoed by Corporal Ford later in the torture scene as he beats a captured Nazi, but one that many people selectively hold to when it benefits them. It is almost invariably the case that non-rationalists will believe, say, or do the very things they condemn in others the moment they get the chance to do them as long as their petty emotions are comfortable or satisfied. Whether it is something comparatively subtle like quiet racial stereotyping or something as overtly emotionalistic as torturing an enemy because they feel justified, doing things that they would object to if they were on the receiving end or even just believing something is right because it is emotionally convenient are among the chief defining traits of non-rationalists. Boyce does object to the torture, but even he fails to verbalize much more than how the torture diverts attention away from the mission objective, though he does mention that Ford is being like the enemy he seems to despise in that moment.
Conclusion
Here is a film showcasing how to blend genres without sacrificing the integrity of either side. In fact, Overlord is a war movie with horror aspects rather than a horror movie with the background of a war movie, with a very distinct point arriving past which the horror is introduced without ever shedding the war narrative. World War II is not used as an excuse to get to a genre not normally linked with war stories just to be abandoned for zombie horror. This makes it by far perhaps the most grounded movie about Nazi experimentation to reach theaters as well. Again, Overlord is very comparable to the Wolfenstein games in some regards, but in the best kind of way. The scientific and occult ideologies of the Third Reich's Nazis are ripe for a more serious kind of cinematic exploration, and if the marketing and the internet had given away nothing about the experiments, this film could have sprung the horror elements as a surprise that could not be anticipated from the wonderful opening scene alone.
Content:
1. Violence: Bullets and blows do draw blood when they strike flesh in this movie, with some scenes showing crushed skulls or torsos as explosions tear them apart.
2. Profanity: "Fuck," "shit," "goddamn," and "bitch" are used.
3. Sexuality: In one scene, a Nazi begins sexually interacting with a woman against her wishes under the threat of sending her brother to be experimented upon if she refuses.
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