Title:
Overlord [DVD video] : D-Day, June 6, 1944
Publication Information:
[New York, NY] : Criterion Collection, 2007, ©1975.
Physical Description:
1 videodisc (84 min.) : sound, black and white ; 4 3/4 in. + 1 booklet (28 pages : illustrations ; 19 cm)
ISBN:
9781934121337
Abstract:
Drafted into the British army, young Tom Beddows leaves his parents and his beloved cocker spaniel and reports for military duty, arriving late because of a German air raid. In training camp, he makes friends with Jack and Arthur. They all wish the war would go away, so they could return to their parents and girlfriends. Finally ordered into combat, a sense of impending doom prompts Tom to write a consoling letter to be delivered to his parents instead of the official military notice. Stoic and fatalistic, he will be among the first troops to land in Normandy at the launch of Operation Overlord, the Allied offensive to push the Nazis out of France.
General Note:
Originally produced as a British motion picture in 1975.
Supplements: Commentary [optional audio feature with director Stuart Cooper and actor Brian Stirner] -- Theatrical trailer (3 min.) -- Mining the archive [featurette] (24 min.) -- Soldiers' journals [audio feature] -- Capa influences Cooper [photo essay/slide show] (8 min.) -- Germany calling [featurette] (2 min.) / British Ministry of Information, 1941. Allied propaganda short using clips from Leni Reifenstahl's Triumph of the will, comically edited by Charles A. Ridley and set to the British dance tune, "The Lambeth Walk". The legions of marching soldiers, as well as Adolf Hitler giving his Nazi salute, were made to look like wind-up dolls, dancing to the music. Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels is reported to have seen a copy of the short film and was outraged beyond reason, leaving his screening room kicking chairs and screaming profanities -- Cameramen at war [featurette] (15 min.) / produced by the British Ministry of Information, 1943. A tribute to newsreel and service film unit cameramen and features some of the most dramatic footage shot during the war -- A test of violence [featurette] (14 min.) : a short film about the Spanish artist Juan Genovés, whose paintings depict the horror of oppression and brutality -- Booklet includes the essays "Man versus machine" by Kent Jones, "The Imperial War Museum" by Roger Smither, and excerpts from the Overlord novelization, by Stuart Cooper and Christopher Hudson.
Performers:
Brian Stirner (Tom), Davyd Harries (Jack), Nicholas Ball (Arthur), Julie Neesam (the Girl), Sam Sewell (the Trained Soldier), John Franklyn-Robbins, Stella Tanner.
Technical Details:
DVD; Region 1, NTSC; Dolby Digital mono.; widescreen presentation, aspect ratio 1.66:1, enhanced for 16:9 televisions; new restored high-definition digital transfer.
Personal Subject:
Language:
English
Additional Language:
Closed-captioned in English with optional subtitles in English for the deaf and hard-of-hearing.
Added Corporate Author:
Added Title:
Germany calling [DVD video].
Cameramen at war [DVD video].
Test of violence [DVD video].