Blitz, dir. Steve McQueen (119mins) | Releasing November 1st, 2024
Hello again, lovely reader! It's been a minute. Well, it’s been a year. But let's not worry too much about where I've been and what I've been up to, because we've got ourselves another film festival to cover. Kicking off 2024's BFI London Film Festival is Blitz, the latest film from director Steve McQueen whose American epic 12 Years a Slave (2013) took the world by storm just over a decade ago.
Blitz is just as ambitious a project, and similarly seeks to reveal forgotten (or deliberately discarded) truths about the best and worst of humanity. The film focalises nine-year-old George (newcomer Elliott Heffernan) as he finds himself and his family embroiled in the Luftwaffe's assault on British civilians during WW2 (an eight-month period which saw British cities relentlessly bombed, today referred to as 'the Blitz'). The film feels more urgent than ever following the images of mass civilian casualties in Gaza and Ukraine, and its unflinching depiction of the brutality of war in London drives home just how fragile peace can be.
Images of mass destruction in foreign cities have become all too normalised post-millennium, with this kind of warfare today considered an issue British civilians shouldn't expect to truly confront. But in its slick direction and terrifying sound design, the explosiveness of the Blitz in London feels chilling and tight in a way I haven't yet seen the conflict depicted.
There was an ad campaign launched by Save the Children 10 years ago that you'll be familiar with. The video was shot in a 'second a day' format and followed a fictional girl in modern day England who is forced to flee the country following the outbreak of civil war. It was effective, sadly, because it cut through to British audiences who viewed war as an issue not of their concern. To be blunt about the matter, it was effective because it depicted a white girl going through the kinds of crises we deem un-shocking in predominantly black and brown countries.
Blitz landed for me in a similar way, not necessarily because of race (although racism is a key theme in the film), but because such an intimate look at London in turmoil felt distinctly uncomfortable given the ongoing crises around the world. And as the heavy bass in the BFI Southbank's auditorium made the ceiling panels rattle while the bombs fell, it all felt a little bit too real.
This discomfort was deliberate. Steve McQueen explained in a press conference I was lucky to attend following my morning screener that he had always wanted Blitz to premier in the city destroyed within the film. His wish was granted; Blitz kicked off the 2024 London Film Festival last night at the Southbank Centre's Opening Gala.
The film itself is certainly grand enough to live up to its top billing. It feels at times like a true epic in that it's totally sprawling and breathtakingly directed. There are several sequences which deliver punches not dissimilar from the famous long take in Wright's Atonement (2007), and there's so much music within this project that I could honestly see an argument for it to be considered a diegetic musical. Oliver! seems to be a clear inspiration here, so much so that Blitz does slip into Dickensian cliche at times throughout the film. But this never felt like a major issue to me. The film justifies its own existence in the scale of its ambition, the slickness of its direction, and in its proud declaration that people of colour were key tenants of 1940s Britain.
On paper, this film’s about a boy who rejects evacuation and tries to find his way back home to Stepney. In reality, this film is as much about the racism this boy endures on his journey as it is about London at war. And as I sat in the press conference following our screening of Blitz I was shocked at how little journalists were willing to interact with the xenophobia that sits at the centre of McQueen’s film. Perhaps this is because these festivals are typically dominated by white artists and voices, but I also think the mythology of WW2 as Britain's 'finest hour' has sought to undermine the reality that contemporary racism was as British as it was German. While the Nazi’s bombs threaten the concrete foundations of George’s future, it’s the home-grown hatred which causes so many of his problems as he tries to find his way back home.
Saoirse Ronan shines in the role of his mother, Rita, who we cut to from time to time as she attempts to locate her missing son. She doesn’t ultimately have much to do, but her screen-presence and warmth helps to anchor the film which feels otherwise dizzying in scale. Kathy Burke also impresses, and her supporting role as the repulsive crime-boss Beryl made my stomach turn multiple times. Burke’ subplot was an education to me on the criminal underworld that thrived in London’s rubble-scape. Much of Blitz seeks to drive home the moral perversity of modern war. McQueen noted, for example, the contrariness of Rita’s lifestyle; this is a woman who makes RAF bombs by daylight, but shelters from her enemy’s every night.
In embracing these uncomfortable truths about human nature, Blitz asserts its relevance. Life in 1941 was, in many ways, like life in London today. There are many wonderful people in this city, and there are many who operate in a moral vacuum. To rose-tint World War 2 as a conflict in which Brits became unilaterally good would be to ignore the full spectrum of our truth. There’s been a lot of media produced about this time in British history, but not much of it seeks to immortalise the perspectives which lead the narrative of this film. And while it suffers from an abrupt conclusion that undermines the sprawling tapestry woven by the previous 115 minutes, Blitz is a slick and smart war epic that absolutely deserves the attention it demands. Catch it on the big screen before it’s sent to obscurity on AppleTV+.
★★★★
Written by James Green
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