Blitz | London Film Festival Review

Never one to avoid confronting history head on, Steve McQueen has always been a filmmaker ready to peel away its outer layers and prod away beneath. It’s a preoccupation that’s served him well so far in his career and one that’s seen him traverse an impressively wide ranging map of the past.

From the 19th century plantations of the Deep South to the Irish hunger strikes of the 1980s, McQueen’s fascination with history and his inherent desire to scrutinise it has been clear from the very beginning. Most recently, however, the filmmaker’s fascination has lingered on a period of history many of us will probably feel innately familiar with – World War II.

Following last year’s enthralling meditation on everyday WWII life with Occupied City, Steve McQueen has once again stepped into the heart of the war. However, despite Blitz’s clear mainstream appeal, much like Occupied City, McQueen’s portrayal of the Second World War here is not (entirely) what you expect.

As World War II rages on and the Nazi’s blitzkrieg on London intensifies, nine-year-old George (Elliott Heffernan) is evacuated to the countryside by his mother, Rita (Saoirse Ronan), to escape the bombings. Defiant and determined to return to his family, George embarks on a perilous journey back home. However, as the bombs continue to drop and the streets of London grow increasingly perilous, George’s voyage back into Rita’s loving arms is fraught with danger.

For any Brit, Word War II and the blitz are a period of history many will feel they know well. It’s an era of stiff-upper-lip courage, spirit-lifting community, and bomb-hardened bravery taught in British schools from a young age and, as such, you’d be forgiven for thinking there’s not much more to learn about it.

However, as is always the case with these things, there’s so much about WWII, and so many stories within it, that remain unknown and untold. If we’re being honest with ourselves, the tales told about World War II, especially on the home front, frequently involve the same people and the same faces. But, the same people and the same faces is not what Steve McQueen does. Not all the time, at least.

By far his most mainstream effort to date, Blitz sees McQueen at something of a filmmaking crossroads. Overtly conventional in its construction but clearly incredibly personal in its conception, the film sits at an intriguing intersection for its director, one that he tries hard to navigate, but one he never feels entirely comfortable with.

After a rather dramatic cold open, Blitz soon settles into something akin to a cosy BBC One Christmas Day drama, as it eases us gently into a world that feels awfully familiar. Wardens and firefighters tackling a blazing building, communities pulling together in adversity, singalongs in pubs, factory worker camaraderie, children being evacuated on steam trains – Blitz’s opening act is very much in line with many comfy war stories before it – and, for better or worse, nothing like what we’ve come to expect from its director.

This opening act feels about as close to comfort viewing as Steve McQueen is ever likely to get, however, as if suddenly remembering who he is as a filmmaker, it’s not too long before the McQueen we’ve become accustomed to makes himself known. The deeper we get into the film and into the bomb-torn horrors of the blitz itself, the more the story opens itself up and allows the chaos, darkness, and death of the war to bleed through.

It’s certainly a welcome tonal shift that offers more edge to proceedings than initially suggested, yet it almost inevitably makes Blitz feel somewhat haphazard. As George sets out on his journey back home, Blitz’s tone and narrative bounces all over the place, never quite finding its rhythm in the process.

As London is torn apart by bombs, the film’s chaotic nature certainly fits that of its setting, however, it also makes for an incredibly uneven watch at times. Punctuated by an array of characters, asides, and mini narratives that flit in and out of the story at will, it often feels like McQueen is desperate to squeeze as many elements, issues, and plot points in as possible, making it increasingly difficult for Blitz to land the way it clearly wants to.

As a result, the film never quite delivers emotionally, and while there are certainly moments throughout George’s journey that hit, the overall impact is disappointingly dampened. Whether it’s the concept of wartime racism that we’ve rarely seen before or the despair, desperation, and utter devastation of the blitz, the film gets close to landing its thematic blows without ever producing a knockout punch.

Punctuated by the kind of social commentary, racial interrogation, and artistic nous that have always come with McQueen’s work, Blitz very much feels akin to the director’s efforts with his Small Axe series. As George encounters racism – either first hand or through other people of colour he meets along the way – and as fascism rears its ugly head – not from the enemy but on the streets and from the people of Britain – in a way you rarely (if ever) see in a World War II drama, Blitz certainly feels like a continuation of the Small Axe story.

These moments, however, are disappointingly fleeting, as McQueen never allows himself the space necessary to fully engage with these themes, so often swiftly moving onto another side plot before having the chance to resolve the last one. Whether it’s an Oliver Twist-esque tangent featuring Stephen Graham and Cathy Burke, George’s railway adventures with fellow evacuees, or whatever the various awkward moments with Harris Dickinson are; there are so many different stories, characters, and tones going on, it’s hard for any of it to find the time to breathe.

So, for anyone expecting Steve McQueen to fully dissect the blitz in the way he’s done before, prepare to be at least a little disappointed. The experience of ethnic minorities living in Britain during World War II is certainly not a side of the conflict that has ever truly been depicted, discussed or dramatized on screen before, so for McQueen to tackle it at all in an overtly mainstream film, even in fleeting moments, is certainly progress in itself, yet it never really feels like enough.

The fact that Steve McQueen never allows himself the narrative space to fully tackle the fascinating and thematically weighty concept of race and the war is disappointing, however, as a heartfelt and undeniably engaging wartime drama, Blitz works well enough for what it is.

Despite its disappointments and overall messiness, when Blitz clicks, it clicks. Helped along by a typically superb Saoirse Ronan performance and a film-stealing turn from Elliott Heffernan, who carries so much of the story on his young shoulders, there are many lovely emotional moments sprinkled throughout Blitz that, together with a handful of mightily impressive and genuinely shocking set pieces, allow the film to remain impactful, if not quite as much as hoped.

While the film is narratively haphazard and doesn’t pack the kind of punch you’d have hoped for, Blitz nevertheless remains an emotionally and thematically engaging wartime drama with heart and charm to spare. Imbued with Steve McQueen’s signature insight, nous and style, Blitz may be the filmmaker’s most overtly mainstream movie to date, but it offers just enough bite to suggest its director still has enough in his arsenal to deliver when necessary.

Score: ★ ★ ★ ½