BFI London Film Festival
Disclaimer: This review contains mild spoilers for Blitz.
With his fifth feature film (following Hunger, Shame, 12 Years a Slave and the underrated Widows), McQueen brings us a functionally conventional war picture that whilst not reinventing the wheel, deftly challenges historical misconceptions whilst illuminating forgotten corners. It is the singularity of McQueen's vision (he directs, writes and produces here) that facilitates the kinds of subtle revelations which help this film to avoid falling into the traps of most of the genre.
We find ourselves in the kind of tale which was once a cornerstone of children's literature and film (see CS Lewis Narnia, Enid Blyton, Goodnight Mister Tom). It is wartime in 1940s London and single mum Rita (Saoirse Ronan), who lives with her father Gerald (a wonderfully tender Paul Weller) is forced to send her nine-year-old son George off to the British countryside to keep him safe from the Blitz - Nazi airraids of 1940-41 which reduced swathes of the capital to rubble. Rather than centring his film around George living in the countryside or his journey back to London, McQueen chooses to follow George's trials and misadventures as he navigates London itself (the decision to premiere Blitz at the London Film Festival was no accident - this is arguably the Londoner's most personal film to date).
The excellent Ronan (Lady Bird, Little Women) delivers a typically assured performance as Rita, but it is newcomer Elliott Heffernan who most impresses as George. Heffernan, who did just about all of his own stunts (and believe me, this boy is put through his paces in this film), eschews melodrama in favour of a winningly stoic performance - reserved without falling into vacuousness.
Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for all performances in this film. Whilst Stephen Graham and Kathy Burke clearly have an immense deal of fun chewing scenery - their broadness threatens to break the impressive feat of social realsim which McQueen and team have wrought. Fortunately, this is only a momentarily blip - as for the vast majority of the film, we are treated to a series of what can almost be described as vignettes, which we see through George's eyes. Grime, chaos, greed, callousness - but also camaraderie, sacrifice and charity. The infamous 'Blitz spirit' is in full display here. However, it is not in the two-dimensional, masculine and whitewashed sense of wartime propaganda - but in quietly revolutionary reframings of that spirit. Starring a mixed-race child and centring the oft-forgotten role of women in the war effort (as ammunitions workers, not tea ladies), the sidelined volunteers such as Benjamin Clementine's tender Yourba warden Ife - all of this is done not as box-ticking or disingenous revisionism, but to more genuinely reflect the time as it was. Honesty is the watchword here - in performances, Yorick le Saux's cinematography and historical fidelity (Joshua Levine, author of The Secret History of the Blitz, advised on this film and Dunkirk).
At the LFF press conference, McQueen talked about how the key messages he wanted to drive home with Blitz was his interest in how love can shine through in their very particular times - which, whilst part of a very particular period of history, continue to ring ever-true with ongoing conflicts in Palestine, the Ukraine and elsewhere. Some will be too quick to dismiss this film as 'too safe', lacking in bite or originality (although the 12A rating arguably contributes, it aids accessibility) - but it is McQueen's naturalistic and deft touch which makes this deserving to be considered a new staple of the wartime drama stable.
Rating: 4/5
Blitz world premiered at the 2024 BFI London Film Festival. It plays in select cinemas on 1 November before streaming globally on Apple TV+ on 22 November.
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