Film

What's on at the cinema plus reviews of the latest movie and DVD releases

Search cinema listings

Browse cinemas A-Z

Search 20,000 reviews

 

We Shall Overcome (2006)

Director: Niels Arden Oplev

Average user rating
No reviews

Movie review

From Time Out London

Sorry Boss fans, not a doc on Springsteen’s latest, but a civil rights-tinged school drama set in Denmark, 1969. Financed by Lars von Trier’s Zentropa, it offers a more conventional Danish take on US culture than his own ‘Dogville’ or ‘Manderlay’: Frits (Janus Dissing Rathke), a Martin Luther King-obsessed, Beatles mop-wearing 13-year-old, exits blood-soaked with half his ear hanging off from brutal headmaster Lindum-Svendsen’s (Bent Mejding) office. Lindum-Svendsen’s gone too far this time, and with his father, recovering from a mental breakdown, and progressive music master Mr Svale (‘Hi, call me Freddie’), Frits stands up for justice.

Apparently based on the director’s own experiences, with its irredeemably authoritarian villain and prodigiously political young hero (he corrects his teachers about Danish slavery), ‘We Shall Overcome’ comes across as some hip filmmaker’s fantasy of a cool ’60s childhood – at one cringeworthy point even turning into ‘School of Rock’. But it’s enjoyably rousing, and cinematographer Lars Vestergard works miracles turning the Danish countryside into bright slices of Americana.

Author: Nick Funnell

Time Out London Issue 1891: November 15-22 2007


  • Print this page
  • Send to a friend

What do you think?
Post your review now

clear rating
Min 1 star. Zero stars will be treated as unrated.

*mandatory fields





Top Stories

The Coens' 'Burn after Reading': review

The Coens' 'Burn after Reading': review

Pitt and Clooney star in the Coen brothers' latest, 'Burn After Reading', which opened the 2008 Venice film festival

John C Reilly on ‘Step Brothers’

John C Reilly on ‘Step Brothers’

Method man turned slapstick comic John C Reilly talks to Time Out about his new film ‘Step Brothers’

Guy Ritchie on ‘RocknRolla’

Guy Ritchie on ‘RocknRolla’

Wally Hammond talks to Guy Ritchie about his latest film, ‘RocknRolla’ which sees him safely back in his old manor among the familiar carnival of villains, scams and high-octane spills and thrills

Saul Dibb on ‘The Duchess’

Saul Dibb on ‘The Duchess’

Dave Calhoun discovers from director Saul Dibb that his latest, 'The Duchess’ is far from your typical aristos-in-love movie

Opinion: Can George Lucas still make ‘small’ movies?

Opinion: Can George Lucas still make ‘small’ movies?

With the release of animated spin-off 'Star Wars: The Clone Wars', Tom Huddleston wonders whether George Lucas will ever return to his roots.