This one gets off to a promising start before descending into garish violence. Overlord was the codename given to the D-Day landing at Normandy in WWII. And that is the backdrop to Julius Avery’s movie, as we join a group of GIs on a mission to take out a Nazi communications tower before the invasion begins. The convincing opening scene has the boys being flown behind enemy lines while being shot at from below. We do the usual figuring of who will be killed, who will be the hero and who will be the joker etc, before they bail out of the bomber and parachute into enemy territory. The interesting part of the story comes when the doughty corporal (Wyatt Russell), the sensitive Afro-American who can speak French (Jovan Adepo), and the gum-chewing professional (John Magaro) discover that the quaint stone village to which they have been sent is also the location of a laboratory where a German physician is doing frightening experiments on the local population, in the manner of Josef Mengele. His aim is to make the invincible storm trooper – ‘if you want a thousand-year Reich, you need a thousand-year soldier’ – but it is still a work in progress and the results are variable and hideous. It’s a provocative idea, but Avery is only concerned with the ferocity that he is able to unleash. And to be fair to his crew in the makeup department, they are spectacularly successful in their monstrous creations – the Kraut officer with half his face blown away, along with a bald and snarling ‘Mr Hyde’ in a cell are a credit to their bloody imagination. Naturally, there is a beautiful girl (Mathilde Ollivier), who is both unattached and attracted to the nice black guy as well as being a dab hand with a flamethrower. Her kid brother thinks the Yanks are fab – now there’s a surprise. A visual reference to Abu Ghraib reminds us that the enemy doesn’t own cruelty and barbarity is the lasting impression.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling.
If you are a local business owner help us and in turn we help you. All The Echo asks for is advertising, not a free ride. It is every advert in The Echo and on www.echo.net.au, which creates the space for all the stories and coverage of community events, happenings and concerns.
If you are a reader you can become a sponsor of The Echo. Your support keeps the us independent.
Even a small one-off or regular donation from you will help keep the echo’s independent voice alive and strong.
Support Us
Become one of the supporters who helps keep independent, local journalism alive in the Byron Shire by contributing anything from as little as the cost of a coffee each month.
You’re supporting The Echo, thank you
Your contribution is keeping independent, local journalism alive in the Northern Rivers.
Because of supporters like you, we can keep every story free for everyone — no paywall, no exceptions. Your money goes directly to funding our newsroom of 40-odd local workers covering the stories that matter to this community.
Tell us what you think, give us your opinion
The Echo loves your letters and comments and is proud to provide a community forum on the issues that matter most to our readers and the people of the NSW north coast. So don’t be a passive reader, email us your epistles at editor@echo.net.au.
The letters deadline for The Echo is noon Friday. Letters longer than 200 words may be cut. The publication of letters is at the discretion of the letters editor. Please remember to include your full name, address and telephone number.
Online comments are no longer available.
