Dir: Steve McQueen
Cast: Saoirse Ronan, Harris Dickinson, Elliot Heffernan, Benjamin Clementine, Kathy Burke, Paul Weller, Stephen Graham
It may lack the nuances of his more challenging previous works but Steve McQueen still manages to deliver a captivating wartime drama that is surprisingly old-fashioned
Since the release of his first theatrical feature in 2008, British filmmaker Steve McQueen has established himself as one of the most talented and inspirational directors to come out of the UK since the turn of the millennium. McQueen has a surprisingly sparse filmography to date but what the London-born director lacks in quantity, he more than makes up for in substance. As showcased in his historical dramas “Hunger” (2008) and “12 Years a Slave” (2013) and psychological drama “Shame” (2011), McQueen is an expert at approaching harrowing real life dramas in a though provoking but equally engaging manner. McQueen’s first three theatrical features demonstrate his incredibly nuanced skills as a screenwriter as we explore his central protagonists with a remarkable amount of depth that fully captures the horrific circumstances they find themselves in, whether this be the Irish hunger strikes, the American Slave Trade, or their ongoing sex addiction. McQueen’s work has not gone unnoticed, with all of his works being highly regarded, in particular the Oscar-winning “12 Years a Slave”, which is considered by many to be one of the most powerful movies of the 21st century for its accurate depiction of one of the most shameful times in American history.
I was fortunate enough to attend one of the few worldwide premieres of McQueen’s latest project, the wartime drama “Blitz”, as part of the opening night gala at the 2024 London Film Festival. This was my second LFF opening night gala in as many years following my attendance at the UK premiere of Emerald Fennel‘s “Saltburn” last year.
With his latest project, McQueen once again attempts to examine a dark day in modern history, this time in his native city of London. “Blitz” is a sprawling drama that depicts the every day horrors British civilians had to endure during the German Blitzkrieg of the Second World War. “Blitz” marks the third major British wartime drama in recent years, following the release of Christopher Nolan‘s “Dunkirk” (2017) and Sam Mendes‘ “1917” (2019), but unlike his compatriot’s efforts, McQueen has focused more on the dramatic than the spectacular in his re-enactment of 20th Century warfare.
In contrast to the virtually silent protagonists of “Dunkirk” and “1917”, “Blitz” introduces us to our outspoken nine-year-old hero George (Elliott Heffernan), whose fiery persona is attributed to his loving relationship with his factory working mother Rita (Saoirse Ronan) and piano playing grandad Gerald (Paul Weller). The working class family live in the East End neighbourhood of Stepney Green, where George happily enjoys his freedom of playing cricket down the cobble streets, with his family offering reassurance and support whenever he is exposed to the deplorable racism at the time in response to his mixed ethnic background. Before he was born, George’s father was subjected to a hate crime by some locals which ultimately saw him apprehended and allegedly deported from the country, leaving Rita to raise him as a working single mother, who herself is ridiculed due to having an ethnic son.
Following a string of nearby bombings by the Germans, an initially reluctant Rita is persuaded by Gerald to evacuate her son to the safety of the countryside, but a homesick George jumps from his moving train to begin his long, arduous journey home. Throughout his travels, George encounters a number of Dickensian inspired characters that highlight the many threats to a lone nine-year-old boy as he makes his way through our nation’s capital. Meanwhile, Rita, who has been made ware of George’s abscondment, desperately begins to seek out her son amongst the increasingly perilous streets of London with the help of her father and local smitten firefighter Jack (Harris Dickinson).
Following the many premieres at TIFF, Venice and Cannes throughout the summer and early autumn, “Blitz” was one of the very few potential Oscar-hopefuls from this year yet to have been screened prior to its opening night gala at LFF last week. Throughout the year I have placed “Blitz” at the top of my Oscar-predictions despite it being “sight unseen” given McQueen’s track record of delivering deep and emotional character studies. Having finally seen the film last week, I came out of my screening surprised by McQueen’s approach to the subject matter. While there is some of the filmmaker’s hallmarks surrounding race and the cultural impact of major historical events, for the most part “Blitz” feels like an old-fashioned children’s adventure movie, channelling childhood classics such as Lionel Jeffries‘ “The Railway Children”. Unlike McQueen’s past works that take a deep dive into a sole protagonists socially impacted mentality, “Blitz” primarily focuses on George’s perilous journey across a crumbling London, with him encountering a variety of colourful characters with their own fascinating stories during the Blitz, none of which unfortunately are ever truly explored. Instead these interactions serve only as a series of vignettes that either help or hinder George on his journey to reunite with his mother, with only one character, Military Policeman Ife (Benjamin Clementine), providing George with any real character development.
Being a black man himself, McQueen has been a vocal advocate for racial diversity, often criticising the British TV and Film industry for not providing enough opportunities for black actors. McQueen also used his influence in producing his critically acclaimed anthology series “Small Axe” in 2021 which depicted multiple stories surrounding the London’s West Indian community between the 1960’s and 1980’s. Following the release of “12 Years a Slave”, McQueen spoke out against the film industry for shying away from the slave trade and other historical racial issues, so it came as no surprise to me that the one major arc our young protagonist undergoes in “Blitz” is the acceptance of his colour. It may not be McQueen’s most subtle work but Heffernan and Clementine’s brief on screen chemistry manages to hammer home one of the movie’s few emotional moments.
Outside of Clementine, who is excellent in his limited screentime, the remaining supporting cast are reduced to overtly theatrical caricatures, further supporting the apparent Dickensian influences. In one of the movie’s darker chapters, George is taken in by grotesque cockney criminals Albert (Stephen Graham) and Beryl (Kathy Burke), who take advantage of young boy’s stature to steal valuables buried within the city’s rubble, a sub-plot that could easily be mistaken for “Oliver Twist”.
Conversely, Rita’s story plays out as a feelgood feminist romp following her spirited female colleagues speaking out against their male bosses and government officials whilst grafting in a munitions factory. This ultimately makes “Blitz” feel like McQueen is trying to juggle multiple films at once, which is undoubtedly at its nail-biting best during the increasingly stark depictions of terror as the city streets get increasingly bombarded by German air raids.
What keeps engagement levels high is the undeniable mother and son bond between Rita and George, which is beautifully realised by Ronan and Heffernan. Despite the protagonists spending most of the two hour runtime apart, I never found myself distracted as to what their end goal is – to be together. Ronan, who famously broke onto the scene in 2007 for another wartime drama “Atonement”, is excellent as Rita, and further cements herself as one of the most talented and versatile actors in the industry. While she undergoes no major narrative of her own, Rita provides the warmth and spirit to remind us as to why George has fled the safety of the countryside to be with his mother, a feeling countless children would have suffered during the war. Sadly the same cannot be said for newcomer Heffernan however, who is given the onerous task of carrying this monumental picture on his own. The young actor clearly has some talent and does a creditable job given his age and nature of his first project. However, there are scene’s where Heffernan fails to deliver the emotional range needed to provide the movie’s heavy emotional beats, as he remains relatively stone-faced despite the horrors of war echoing around him, which did take me out of the film at times. Great child actors are famously difficult to come by, but as seen by Ronan in the aforementioned “Atonement”, Christian Bale in Steven Spielberg‘s own wartime adventure “Empire of the Sun” (1987) and more recently by Jude Hill in Troubles-based drama “Belfast” (2021), there are great young actors out there more than capable of carrying a big scale production on their own, unfortunately Heffernan has not quite met this standard.
This lack of depth and subtlety from Heffernan ultimately results in a somewhat unsatisfying and abrupt ending, that left me yearning for more breathing time to let the emotional moment truly land. The movie is exactly two hours long, almost if Apple TV+ had instructed McQueen to not go beyond this length for streaming purposes, having finally learnt their lesson after their previous two awards contenders, the lengthy “Killers of a Flower Moon” and “Napoleon”, bombed at the box office. The ending aside, which feels rather rushed, this refreshingly brisk 120 minute flies by thanks to a number of action packed and nail-biting set pieces which further solidify McQueen as an expert visual storyteller and master of his craft. As the almost episodic drama unfolds, George is thrown into increasingly treacherous scenarios, and Hans Zimmer‘s jarring metallic score perfectly captures the tension of the British public at such a fraught moment in history.
Apple clearly see this as a serious awards contender given the budget they have given McQueen, with every penny of it going to great use to painstakingly recreate 1940’s London, a city that was as hectic and dangerous then as it is today. It came as no surprise to me that George manages to find his way back to London from the country with no issue, but struggles amongst the complexities of London’s transport system to navigate those final few miles. The costume and set design is impeccable, with each grubby side-character donning attire as if they had just come off the West End.
As for its chances at the upcoming Academy Awards, I can see “Blitz” being the “Oscar-bait” pick of the year thanks to its old-fashioned storytelling, which may have some narrative flaws but is surprisingly refreshing amongst the overtly taxing and mentally tiresome contenders of recent years. McQueen’s latest will definitely go down well with the general British audience, and if it was to have come out during the 1960’s, we would most likely be regarding it as one of the classics of British cinema.
Steve McQueen has delivered another masterful motion picture with “Blitz” and while it may be his least challenging and arguably weakest film to date, that is no major criticism given the outrageously high bar the filmmaker has set over the past sixteen years. Many will be surprised by its simplicity and old fashioned, episodic structure but this wartime drama is still a rip-roaring, nail-biting adventure.
Blitz is showing in UK Cinemas from Friday 1st November
Dan Loves Film 