Blitz Review

For his latest film, Blitz, director Steve McQueen has given us a war film. But not in the way that phrase usually suggests. There’s no military battles and what uniforms there are don’t belong to soldiers: they’re worn by volunteer firemen, wardens in tin hats and the occasional policeman. This is, as it was called, the home front, with the focus on ordinary people when war demolishes their homes and way of life and they have to fight to survive. But McQueen’s name on it means it comes with a powerful message. And he’s got plenty on his mind.

The film follows the lives of a group of people in East London during the German bombardment of 1940. Single, working mum Rita (Saoirse Ronan) and her young son George (Elliott Heffernan) live with her dad, Gerald (Paul Weller), the only father figure the boy has known. His real dad was black, which means that, behind her back, Rita is labelled as “spoiled goods”. As bombing raids on London escalate, she decides George should be evacuated to the country but, an hour into his train journey, the angry boy jumps off the train and his picaresque journey home – meeting other runaways, being looked after by black warden Ife (Benjamin Clementine) and helping save the lives of people in a flooded shelter – forms the backbone of the story.

It’s a familiar one: the war itself and the years afterwards produced numerous films paying tribute to the resilience of the hundreds of thousands of civilians whose cities came under attack. McQueen does too, but without any of the idealized glow that went with those movies: in his wartime London, people protest long and loud about the lack of bomb shelters and there’s looters who take advantage of the destruction. No cheeky Dad’s Army style spivs here. The community is culturally diverse, including people who make their hatred of anybody from another race brutally clear – even though the country is fighting against the spread of racism and segregation. And, even though the looters seem to come from the pen of Dickens, with George as an Oliver Twist figure and a lipsmackingly grotesque Kathy Burke in charge of the gang, it never feels completely out of place.

Visually, the film is full of impressive, and often spectacular, set pieces. The aerial view of a flattened East London after a raid, George fleeing as bombs explode around him and the sudden flooding of an Underground station sheltering crowds of people are all highlights, but the opening sequence is utterly indelible. Volunteer firemen are struggling to cope with a blazing inferno during a raid and, when the water is turned on, the pressure in the hose is so strong that it appears to come alive, thrashing around, knocking out anybody in its way and hampering their desperate efforts. It’s a brilliantly terrifying image.

Blitz has all McQueen’s customary intensity and ion, all reinforced by some outstanding cinematography from Yorick Le Saux (Clouds Of Sils Maria et al), an atmospheric score from Hans Zimmer and a wonderful ensemble cast. Ronan is as immaculate ever, desperately trying to hold on to her life in the midst of destruction, and Heffernan is excellent as her son, by turn angry, frightened and resourceful beyond his years. The rest of the cast are all on fine form, Graham and Benjamin in particular and, once it’s sunk in that yes, that really is Paul Weller as the grandfather, he’s not in the least out of place among such acting talent. It may sound trite to say that the director is on fire with this film but, in truth, he is. And masterfully.

★★★★

Playing as part of the BFI London Film Festival on 9^th, 10^th, 11th and 18^th October. In selected UK cinemas from 1st November and on Apple TV+ from 22nd November / Saoirse Ronan, Harris Dickinson, Elliott Heffernan, Paul Weller, Stephen Graham, Kathy Burke, Benjamin Clementine, Hayley Squires / Dir: Steve McQueen / Apple / 12A