Cast: Saoirse Ronan, Elliott Heffernan, Harris Dickinson, Benjamin Clementine, Kathy Burke, Paul Weller, Stephen Graham, Leigh Gill, Mica Ricketts, CJ Beckford, Alex Jennings, Joshua McGuire, Hayley Squires, Erin Kellyman, Sally Messham
Genre: Action, Drama, History, War
Director: Steve McQueen
In Irish Cinemas: 8th November 2024
Streaming on Apple TV+: 22nd November 2024
On a wall in the Nazi-bombed streets of London, graffiti reads, “Keep smiling.” In the harrowing world of Blitz, writer-director Steve McQueen uses this ironic phrase to put a dark spin on the classic wartime British mantra, “Keep a stiff upper lip.” The contrast is biting: How does one muster a smile amid relentless air raids and devastation?
McQueen’s work often delves into violent, tumultuous periods of history. He confronted the brutality of American slavery in 12 Years an enslaved person (2013), a film that won the Oscar for Best Picture. He explored the hunger strikes of the Northern Irish Troubles in Hunger and examined the German occupation of Amsterdam in Occupied City. Yet McQueen’s approach to historical narratives sets him apart; he’s never been content to tell familiar tales in the familiar ways. Instead, he brings a distinctive vision, challenging audiences with his unorthodox takes on historical trauma.
Blitz is a testament to McQueen’s contrarian perspective. While on the surface, it may seem like a gritty retelling of the WWII child-in-danger story, such as John Boorman’s acclaimed Hope and Glory (1987)—which also depicted London during the Blitz—McQueen’s take is different. His film is marked by a raw intensity and an unflinching portrayal of resilience, pushing past sentimentality to expose the stark, ironic contradictions of trying to “keep smiling” through terror. Through Blitz, McQueen reminds us that even in the darkest moments, there’s a brutal honesty in examining how we endure.
McQueen’s film delves into darker, more complex themes than Boorman’s, pushing beyond the boundaries of a conventional wartime narrative. It’s both more ambitious—arguably to a fault—and provocative. Through a mix of historical events and the trials of a fictional character, McQueen explores how the Blitz, the eight-month German bombing campaign over London, exposed not only the terror from above but also the hidden cruelty on the ground. In his vision, captured in Yorick Le Saux’s stark, dynamic cinematography, the Nazis remain a distant, faceless threat represented only by their roaring planes and relentless bombs. But the absolute horror, McQueen suggests, was not confined to enemy forces; it thrived in the very streets of Britain, embodied by bigots, thieves, brutes, and indifferent officials, all amid a society fractured by class and racial divisions.
At the heart of this harrowing tale is young George (played by Elliott Heffernan), a nine-year-old Black boy who is abruptly separated from his mother, Rita (Saoirse Ronan), at the onset of the Blitz in September 1940. They live together in East London with Rita’s father, Gerald, portrayed by musician Paul Weller in a rare acting role. As the Nazi bombers unleash terror over the city, Londoners scramble for safety. In a chilling sequence, a mob of desperate civilians struggle to break into a locked subway station, only to be blocked by police and transit workers (as London’s Underground was not initially designated for civilian shelter). As the explosions draw closer, Gerald insists that George must be evacuated to the countryside for his safety, echoing the real-life displacement of over a million British children sent away from urban areas to escape the Blitz. Heartbroken yet resolute, Rita remains behind to work in a munitions factory, manufacturing weapons to support the war effort.
Before George departs, Rita hands him a precious St. Christopher medallion—an emblem of protection and safe passage once believed to safeguard travellers and children. The medallion had belonged to George’s father, Marcus (CJ Beckford), originally from Grenada, who was tragically unjustly deported from Britain before George’s birth.
However, George’s journey to safety takes an unexpected turn. Defiant and desperate to return to his mother, he leaps off the evacuation train, declaring to three other runaway children, “I just want to go home.” What follows is an intense and haunting journey as George fights his way back to London, encountering a series of grim and often brutal episodes that reveal the resilience and cruelty of the human spirit. This odyssey of survival becomes the film’s central thread. However, “Blitz” sometimes wrestles to maintain its focus amid a montage of human encounters that showcase both the nobility and, more often, the moral failings of wartime society.
McQueen’s “Blitz” doesn’t offer easy answers or traditional heroism. Instead, it pulls back the veneer of national unity during wartime to reveal a more fractured, unsettling reality. Through George’s eyes, the viewer glimpses Britain, where enemies are also found, even in the face of foreign invasion.
Throughout a harrowing night and day, George encounters potential allies in the heart of wartime London, set against the unsettling tones of Hans Zimmer’s dissonant score. One of these allies is Ife (played by Benjamin Clémentine), a Black air-raid warden who faces harsh racial prejudice as he dutifully patrols the city each night. Another is Jess (Mica Ricketts), a compassionate woman George meets in a bakery, offering him a rare moment of kindness amidst the chaos. Yet, the night turns dark as George is coerced into joining a band of thieves led by the cunning siblings Albert (Stephen Graham) and Beryl (Kathy Burke). Handing him a burlap sack, they order him to plunder bombed-out shops and even strip jewellery from the lifeless bodies of club patrons.
One of the film’s most chilling scenes recreates the destruction of the Café de Paris, a glamorous jazz club on Coventry Street that, despite the ongoing Blitz, had continued to operate as if untouched by the war. That is, until a bomb rips through its ceiling, transforming the lively nightspot into a scene of devastation. But this horror is only the beginning of the ordeal.
Meanwhile, George’s mother, Rita, is on her harrowing journey. She desperately tries to locate her son while balancing her duties at an air-raid shelter. She also pursues her dream of singing, auditioning for morale-boosting BBC musical shows meant to lift spirits amidst the devastation. Music plays a significant role in Blitz, echoing its role in Steve McQueen’s Small Axe series, particularly the “Lovers Rock” instalment, which celebrated the lives and resilience of West Indian immigrants in 1960s—1980s London.
In contrast to the slow-burn storytelling McQueen employed in Small Axe, Blitz packs its narrative into a brisk two-hour film. While it aims for the same breadth and depth as the anthology series, the result is a hurried film, with its layered themes and characters vying for attention in a condensed runtime.
Saoirse Ronan performs admirably as a singer, but her character’s dramatic journey feels incomplete and cut short. Paul Weller’s role, his first appearance in a film, is limited to more of a cameo than a fully fleshed-out part. Meanwhile, Harris Dickinson, a rising talent known for his work in Triangle of Sadness, portrays a character with the potential for depth, yet he is given surprisingly little screen time.
Young actor Elliott Heffernan, making his debut, delivers a standout performance as George, a courageous and resourceful character. Director Steve McQueen selected Heffernan from a large pool of candidates, inspired by the boy’s uncanny resemblance to an actual London Blitz evacuee in a vintage photograph.
While McQueen’s storytelling may falter at times in this film, his casting instincts are sharper than ever. Known for launching careers—including those of Chiwetel Ejiofor and Michael Fassbender in his early projects—McQueen once again demonstrates an eye for promising talent, drawing memorable performances from even the youngest members of his cast.
Overall: 6/10
Movie Reviewer
