Summary

• Overlord, released in 1975, is a highly accurate D-Day movie, using real footage and diaries for authenticity.
• Overlord was lauded by critics for its unique approach, blending newsreel and fiction for a powerful impact.
• While Saving Private Ryan is celebrated, Overlord's realistic portrayal of D-Day events sets it apart in accuracy.

Steven Spielberg's 1998 war movie realistic war movies ever made, yet it is not actually the most accurate depiction of the D-Day landings. The movie's notorious opening sequence remains a watershed moment in movie history, highlighting the grim reality faced by the soldiers on Omaha beach. Stories of combat veterans rendered unable to watch the film due to its powerfully evocative content are well documented. As a result, it's somewhat surprising to consider that another film brings D-Day to life more effectively.

Saving Private Ryan is one of the most successful D-Day movies ever made – and with good reason. While the opening scene has retained its power to shock, the rest of the movie – centering around a small group of soldiers sent on a mission to save a lost paratrooper – is full of memorable moments that continue to resonate. The movie won five Academy Awards following its release and holds an impressive 94% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, highlighting its credentials. For all this, however, it is not the most accurate cinematic version of the Normandy invasion ever seen.

Overlord Is The Most Realistic D-Day Movie

It Has A Unique Filmmaking Approach

Released in 1975, Stuart Cooper's Overlord is both an acclaimed and relatively unknown World War Two movie and also the most accurate film about the D-Day landings ever made. Made for just under £90,000 (equivalent to £946,000, or $1.2 million in 2024), the black and white movie follows a single soldier from training through to his experiences in Normandy, overlaying his journey with events in the wider conflict. While this approach is hardly revolutionary, other aspects of Overlord's production elevate it beyond the realm of normal cinema.

Made in collaboration with the Imperial War Museum in London, the movie incorporates extensive detail from real soldiers' diaries, clips from British Army training missions, and even captured German footage from D-Day itself.

Unlike other great D-Day movies, such as Saving Private Ryan or The Longest Day, Overlord uses real footage from World War Two as part of its story. Made in collaboration with the Imperial War Museum in London, the movie incorporates extensive detail from real soldiers' diaries, clips from British Army training missions, and even captured German footage from D-Day itself, giving the project unrivaled authenticity. While it doesn't contain anything as viscerally spectacular as Saving Private Ryan's opening scene, Overlord's inclusion of real history makes it a landmark achievement.

Overlord Won Critical Acclaim For Its Approach

Critics Loved It, Despite A Tiny Budget

Although Overlord's approach was unorthodox, it also helped the film earn deserved critical recognition. The movie holds an impressive 89% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with just two negative reviews out of 19 recorded on the site. Among many high-profile critics to praise Overlord was the legendary film writer Roger Ebert, who wrote that the movie "combines its newsreel and fictional footage so effectively that it has a greater impact than all fiction, or all documentary, could have achieved​​​" (via Chicago Sun-Times). Reviews like this highlight just how effective the film's blend of styles really is.

Overlord is available to stream on Max.

Despite this critical acclaim, Overlord had a difficult and unorthodox release. In fact, after failing to find a US distributor in 1975, the movie only received its US premiere in 2006, with various releases (including as part of the Criterion Collection) coming sporadically over the next few years. This extremely truncated release plan explains why the film made just £44,000 at the box office – a far cry from the hundreds of millions made by Saving Private Ryan. Nevertheless, despite its comparative obscurity, Overlord's production process gives it historical credentials that other movies lack.

Overlord Is Even More Accurate Than Saving Private Ryan

It Incorporates Real History

Because of the extensive use of archival footage and the direct involvement of the Imperial War Museum, Overlord presents a much more accurate image of the build-up to D-Day and the day itself than Spielberg's celebrated epic. While Saving Private Ryan is a formidable distillation of the terror and brutality of combat, it is still a somewhat stylized . Scenes such as when the German bullets shoot soldiers underwater have been criticized for their physical inaccuracy, while the rest of the movie creates an almost total fictional of the remainder of the Normandy campaign.

Overlord's unconventional narrative structure also makes it more realistic than Saving Private Ryan. In a bold move, the 1975 film actually centers on the death of its protagonist on the beach, rather than letting its main character survive until later in the story. As a result, it is arguably a better reflection of the indiscriminate carnage experienced on the French beaches – proving how no one is safe in times of war. The fact that Overlord's main character dies during D-Day actually makes the movie's message feel more powerful, as opposed to the convenient survival of Tom Hanks and his team.

What Overlord Gets Wrong About D-Day

It Repeats One Of Saving Private Ryan's Key Mistakes

Although Overlord is now widely recognized as one of the most underrated World War Two movies ever made, it is not a perfect film. Even though its ingenious use of documentary-style archive footage gives the on-screen action an unrivaled authenticity, the film shares its biggest flaw with projects like Saving Private Ryan, in that its fictionalized protagonist slightly undermines the experiences of the real historical figures also depicted. ittedly, inventing a character enables the movie to shape its story to send the desired moral message. However, it also creates the unavoidable problem that his specific experience is, to some extent, untrue.

In this regard, there's a case to be made that Overlord is a less accurate depiction of events than releases like HBO's Band of Brothers. Although Band of Brothers is clearly dramatized, it has the advantage of using the stories of real soldiers and basing its characters on historical figures. As both Overlord and Saving Private Ryan prove, it's not essential to center a story on real people in order to craft a compelling war movie. However, when it comes to rating total accuracy, the fact that aspects of the narrative are fictionalized slightly holds most cinematic projects back.