MOVIE REVIEW: Overlord (2018)
So many things are dependent on everything else, it’s as if nothing will every be new again. The catch is getting it right the first time. Case in point: the new J.J. Abrams movie Overlord. Going forward, this article will cover the European theater — though I would like to cover the Pacific theater also, I limit the scope for the sake of brevity.
The movie shares a similar title to the 1971 film Operation Overlord, which is a semi-historical reenactment film with the same name as the historical WWII operation. The common name for the beginning of the operation is know as the Battle of Normandy or “D-Day”, and the movie sets itself the night before — in a secret mission to blow up a Nazi radio tower in France to prevent enemy communication and organization of enemy reinforcements. The movie deals with a few Black soldiers working with non-Black soldiers four years before the integration of the military in 1948 through Executive Order 9981, the first sign this movie is a pure fantasy to tell a story.
This story tried to tell us about the horrors of the Third Reich and post-modern warfare in its own way, yet the lessons of that war are lost on this generation. If you don’t believe me, watch the news for as long as you can stand it. I cannot tell you how happy I am to have known so many of the “Greatest Generation” in my younger years, that I am sad I cannot enjoy them in my adulthood. Because THOSE were some bad-ass dudes and ladies. My elementary school coach Mr. Levine served in the Marines on D-Day and lived. Connie Gordon, of the Connie Gordon Method, served as a Marine all-over and she is still amazing. Too many to name gave a lot (and some more than others) so that we could live free and well. For a long while after that, we saw and heard about Nazis in movies, TV, and in arguments when we used or misused it as a pejorative to insult people with abhorrent belief systems, or even when we disagreed…and NOW those people insulted with the term have become actual Nazis.
Because of this we have to hide the swastika, a stolen religious symbol turned icon of horror, in case the symbol is stolen again and used by these new-new Nazis — but we don’t hide the runic “Schutzstaffel” or “SS” for some reason, and we use different symbols to represent the swastika, and we don’t talk about the Final Solution in the way it as intended to be spoken about. I’ve seen shows that depict concentration camps and barely a word is mentioned of Jewish oppression. If you listen to the way the story of WWII and its horrors would be told by modern storytellers, you would think the Nazi “Final Solution” was just about exterminating homosexuals (looking at you, The CW and DC Comics). It does a disservice to the people of color, the thinkers, the feminists, the believers, the children, the old, the sick, and those that disagreed with the Nazi ideology. That’s not even the worst thing we’ve done with the memory of this war and the people that fought in it.
The boogeymen of Europe fought and died, and we enshrined them as “inhuman monsters” or “worthy adversaries” — sometimes both in the same breath. The Second World War and the Third Reich’s Nazi iconography and wardrobe (provided by Nazi party member Hugo Boss) has been mined for a variety of reasons in many types of media — and always from a posturing position of power. From first-person shooters like Wolfenstein (which this movie borrows heavily from), sex games of dominance played out in dark fascist garb, to British royalty wearing Nazi uniforms on Halloween for a lark; for nearly 80 years the ghost of the Nazi has pervaded many aspects of Western culture and, unfortunately, our governments.
I wished for so much more this past Veteran’s Day: to know our soldiers fought for the right thing, to know our kids were taught what actually happened instead of what we want them to know. We have to make it so that our kids don’t have to learn about Nazis in the news, in shooting simulations, in psuedo-science documentaries about aliens…or in gory action movies. The Nazis should be divorced or separated from their achievements gained through torture and unwilling human experimentation, and their symbols need to be in the history books. But can we do this without doing further harm to the memory of those that died to make the achievements happen? We cannot forgive OR forget when it comes to this event; we cannot lie to ourselves about this either — no matter how cool it might be to relive the atrocity or dream of controlling the power behind the atrocity.
CHOICE CUTS:
- I saw a couple of Game of Thrones alumni in this production: Jacob Anderson (Grey Worm), Pilou Asbaek (Euron Greyjoy).
- It was a nice touch to show the character of Pvt. Boyce (played by actor Jovan Adepo), fleshing him out with the assumptions of his life before the war. Very few of the other characters got this treatment.
- So much of the CG in this movie was absolute trash. Practical effects were on-point, though — so visceral, it’s like you could smell it.
- The inaccuracies of intra-unit fraternization between races really got to me, from Pvt. Boyce to Sgt. Eldson (Bokeem Woodbine) as a commander over any non-Black soldier. By ignoring the racism in WWII, the movie ignored an interesting idea from the movie: what if Pvt. Boyce was fighting to be heard but no one believed him because he was Black? And the only time they believed him was when the enemy came calling? How many would have died before the other squad-mates wizened up? Now THAT would have been a great story to highlight the differences in our worlds.
- Mathilde Oliver did an amazing job in her role as Chloe, and her leather jacket felt evocative of the French Resistance — fitting for her character as the movie continued on.
- And now I know why Leo Fitz died in Marvel’s “Agents of SHIELD” — Iain de Castaecker was in this movie, and probably couldn’t do both on his schedule.
- Me @ the movies: “Damn, brother, can you get a pat-down? All that sweat and they’ll see your Black ass!”
- PUT OUT THE DAMN LIGHT — I DON’T CARE HOW DARK IT IS!
- Could someone tell me what was happening to the one guy Pvt. Boyce saved? He was hooked up to a machine and had a big needle jabbed into his body — was he being drained for plasma, or was he being injected with something? How did he bounce back in a matter of minutes after that? VERY WORRIED THIS WILL BE SEQUEL BAIT.
- Oh yeah, there are Nazi super-science zombies in it, too.
I have so much respect for the people who lived and died in one of the wars that defined a century. I just wish the people were more widely appreciated.
Happy Veteran’s Day!
— previously published 11/2/2018 on Facebook Notes —
