Blitz Review: LFF 2024
Steve McQueen’s heartfelt epic concerns itself with truth over the mythology of the blitz
In the East End of London mum Rita (Saoirse Ronan) and grandad Gerald (Paul Weller) are saying goodbye to 9-year-old George (newcomer Elliott Heffernan) on the eve of his evacuation to the country, as the city is bombarded nightly by the Blitz. Rita will be staying behind to work in a munitions factory, and George is anxious to leave her.
George is a scrappy kid. Growing up mixed-race in the 1930s, he’s learnt a thing or two about how to survive – so after Rita waves him off on the train he decides he’s not going quietly. A short while into the journey George runs from the train and sets off on a journey across bomb-stricken London. Determined to make his way back home to his family, he’ll encounter the very best and the very worst of humanity along the way.
In setting out to make a film about the Blitz Oscar winning writer/director Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave, Shame) said he wasn’t interested in the traditional perception of the period, the mythologised ‘’keep calm and carry on spirit’’ – he felt his only responsibility was to tell the truth. Subsequently many of the characters seen in the film are directly based on real figures and real events, including Mickey Davis, a little person who ran a bomb shelter under his shop and Ita Ekpenyon, a Nigerian actor who served as an air raid protection warden.
With Blitz McQueen brings light to London’s post-colonial past, putting people of colour and marginalised communities back into the wartime history they’ve so often been erased from. Stories so incredible it’s hard to believe we haven’t seen them on screen before, Blitz feels like a genuinely fresh perspective on one of our most familiar pieces of history.
Whilst it’s part epic odyssey, Blitz is also part family drama and is ultimately a story about love. The central relationship between George and his mum is beautifully performed by Ronan and Heffernan, who have a natural connection in their scenes together and consistently telegraph this all-consuming desire to find one another amongst the chaos of all that happens. Ronan is magnificent, as we have come to rely upon her to be, but it’s young Heffernan who carries the weight of the film on his shoulders. As we see the blitz through his young eyes, we witness his loss of innocence in real time. It’s an impressive performance for a child actor.
Another must mention are stand out performances from Stephen Graham and Kathy Burke who appear as opportunistic thieves sifting their way through the rubble in some of Blitz’s most harrowing moments. Faced with some of the very bleakest scenes of the film their characters are by far the most memorable, feeling devilishly villainous but also carefully considered.
McQueen’s greatest success is in manipulating emotions to fullest – he shifts between moments of childlike wonder as we watch George playing with other kids on the train through to moments of genuine abject terror as we watch the bombs fall. The city thrums with life as people meet and socialise and try to live their lives as normal, but moments later those lives are gone, struck down not in some trench or on some battlefield but in the places where they are meant to feel safest.
It’s all highlighted by a gorgeous score from Hans Zimmer who delivers his most dynamic and varied work in years. A real return to form, his sweeping orchestral pieces give way to piercing discord and chaos as the destruction intensifies.
This is an astonishing achievement from McQueen and easily one of the best films of the year. Filled with heart in your mouth drama and stories that seem too incredible to be true, it’s a big-hearted blockbuster that injects new life into a well-trodden genre. See it on a big screen, it’s worth it.
Blitz is playing as part of the BFI London Film Festival 2024. It is out in cinemas from 1st November 2024 and will be steaming on Apple TV+ from 22nd November
Wow, this sounds really good, cant wait to watch it. Great review