Originally released in the mid-1970s, Overlord offers a spare, impressionistic account of a young British soldier's involvement in the build-up to the D-Day landings in the summer of 1944. Stripping Private Tom Bedloe's story (Brian Stirner) of any bravado, American director Stuart Cooper combines stock footage from the Imperial War Museum collection, with black-and-white dramatized sequences, which were shot by cinematographer John Alcott on period lenses and film stock.

Viewed from today's perspective, Overlord appears a quintessentially British film, paying tribute to the virtues of stoicism and self-effacing decency, and using the English countryside as a symbol of 'our' freedom. We first meet the Everyman figure of Tom saying farewell to his parents and cocker spaniel, before heading off to basic training. He adjusts to the repetitions and boredoms of military life, befriends some fellow conscripts, and shares a romantic encounter with an unnamed girl (Julie Neesem) he meets at a dance. In his dreams however he envisages his own death, and fatalistically writes a final letter to his family on the eve of the invasion.

"A QUINTESSENTIALLY BRITISH FILM "

Stanley Kubrick apparently said that the only problem with Overlord was that it was "an hour-and-half too short", although the platitudinous dialogue - "I hate this war" is swiftly followed by "You'll get through it" - is a serious drawback. Yet there's an interesting contrast here to the gung-ho heroism espoused by the likes of Saving Private Ryan, and the archival material provides a much wider perspective to Tom's own experiences. Captured by military cameramen, these images remind the viewer of the staggering scale of Operation Overlord and the depth of the destruction inflicted in bombing raids on civilian targets.

Overlord is out in the UK on 1st February 2008.