Blitz premiered at BFI London Film Festival and is streaming on Apple TV+ from Friday, 22 November.
From September 1940 to May 1941, the Luftwaffe conducted mass bombing raids across the United Kingdom with the intention of destroying the country’s industrial capacity, food supplies, munitions and morale. Over that time, many cities felt the wrath of the German bombers, from Coventry to Glasgow to Portsmouth and Belfast, but it’s the London Blitz that remains the most discussed in film and television. Black Saturday in London in September of 1940 saw 30 killed and 1,600 injured, but it was the 57 consecutive nights and days of bombing following Black Saturday that left an indelible mark, as the death toll rose to 1,436. At the same time, outside of London, bombing raids would see over 5,000 people killed and hundreds of thousands left homeless, with much of Liverpool and Birmingham reduced to rubble.
Featurette
Steve McQueen, like many filmmakers of the past, opts to focus his lens on the London Blitz in his sweeping yet intimate tale of a single mum, Rita (Saoirse Ronan) and her only child, George (Elliott Heffernan), as the bombs fall, London burns, and people attempt to find hope and community amongst the rubble. You may expect writer and director Steve McQueen to deliver a movie based on the classic notion of “Blitz Spirit.” But, thankfully, McQueen’s Blitz firmly rejects the idea that there was “no panic, no fear, and no despair in London town.” Instead, it opts to focus on the grim reality of the German bombing raids in what was one of the darkest periods of modern British history. However, what is clever about McQueen’s film is that while it carries a heady dose of realism, Blitz is also a family-friendly movie – a ‘boy’s own’ tale of bravery, resilience, and hope in the face of adversity, racism, division, and horror.
Rita (Ronan) lives in East London with her father, Gerald (Paul Weller), and her nine-year-old son, George (Heffernan), whose Grenadian father, Marcus, was arrested and deported for standing up to a group of racist thugs on a night out. East London is the epicentre for Hitler’s bombing raids, and afraid for her son’s safety, Rita makes the only decision open to her as she sends him to live with strangers in the country. But George is having none of it, and after an altercation with two boys on the train, he decides to head back to London, leaping from the steam train mid-journey. Back in East London, Rita isn’t aware that her son is now alone, trying to find his way home through the British countryside and the boroughs of London. As George walks, he discovers that British diversity, history, and community are far more complicated than he ever thought. Some strangers offer support, and others see him as an opportunity for their own gain. But will he make it back to his mum as the East End of London burns?
At its core, McQueen’s film is about war, seen through the eyes of a child who has long felt like an outsider despite the love of his mum and grandad. Like many films before it, from Au Revoir Les Enfants to Empire of the Sun, George changes as his journey progresses, and like those movies, that change is as much about his sense of identity and self as the horrors that force him to grow up. However, Blitz sometimes veers into areas that achieve little; for example, its brief descent into an Oliver Twist-like tale of rogues and street kids is unnecessary. While it is clear that McQueen wanted to portray the darker corners of London life that took advantage of the Blitz, these scenes add little, no matter the brilliance of Kathy Burke and Stephen Graham. Equally, some characters are left hanging with no meaningful development, including Harris Dickinson’s under-explored Jack.
However, despite these minor flaws, Blitz is a visually stunning, emotional, and narratively complex wartime drama squarely aimed at a family audience, and that is rare in today’s world of largely bland family films that offer nothing more than action, fantasy, and comedy. Steve McQueen’s Blitz aims to shine a light on the people who lived through the firestorm, while also reflecting on the diversity already present in London as World War Two broke out (a diversity that many would like you to believe didn’t exist at all).
Blitz is a beautifully performed, written, directed, and shot family movie that aims to spark meaningful discussions on history, British identity, community, and the Empire. McQueen’s film isn’t about people keeping calm and carrying on; it is about the reality of war, British diversity then and now and the courage of those East End communities forever changed by the falling bombs of The Luftwaffe.
Follow Us