Blitz - Film Review

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Little Boy Lost comes to mind when you watch Academy and BAFTA Award-Winning Sir Steve McQueen's Blitz . Written and Directed by McQueen and starring Saoirse Ronan (mum Rita), Paul Weller (grandpa Gerald), Elliott Heffernan (young George), Harris Dickinson (Jack the firefighter), Benjamin Clémentine (Ife), Erin Kellyman (mum's friend Doris), Hayley Squires (mum's friend Tilda), and Stephen Graham (Albert the thief), it's a 120 min long historical drama, and currently screening in Australia, so hurry in and watch it before it leaves our shores.

Reference is made to the German term 'Blitzkrieg' - lightning war/rapid attack - it was the sustained campaign of aerial bombing attacks on British towns and cities carried out by the Luftwaffe (German Air Force) from Sep 1940 until May 1941. Any kind of unexpected attack has, in fact, come to be known as 'blitz'.


The film follows the epic journey of George (played by wonderful newcomer Elliott Heffernan), a 9-year-old biracial boy in World War II London. It was a time it is said, when 800,000 kids were evacuated, to keep them safe. They left by the train loads and parents didn't know where they were going or when they were coming back. Defiant, George did not want to leave his loving mother and grandfather and was determined to return home where he felt safe and accepted. He'd had his fair share of racial discrimination, and bullying throughout his young life, at school and at play, and again on the train. He jumps off the train in his attempt to go home, and along the journey, he manages to find kindred spirits in three young brothers, and they manage to have fleeting, but carefree moments to just be boys. However, most of his journey was filled with the perils of war and unsavoury characters he was too young to ward off.

Seen through the eyes of this 9-year-old who is furious with his single mum (a munitions worker) for sending him away, he experiences the world with eyes open wide as to just how ingrained the denigration of black people is, by the British Empire. And the opportunism of those who would take advantage of the chaos of war, like the scavenger thieves and corpse robbers who descend after the bomb falls, and rope George into their schemes, giving him no means of escape. Through George’s eyes, McQueen’s BLITZ delivers one of the most powerful depictions of resilience, crisis, and the enduring spirit of survival.


The city is brilliantly captured by Adam Stockhausen's meticulous production design, while Hans Zimmer’s score seamlessly balances grandeur with the film’s intimate moments. The scene in the trailer of a plane coming close to George as he's running on the bridge, crashing into the building was absolutely brilliant and visceral. In an interview, McQueen says - he was inspired by an old photograph of a mixed-race Blitz evacuee, a small boy standing on a WWII-era railway platform, with a jacket and a suitcase that was too large for him. He wondered what his life was like. In the film, with nefarious characters about, you begin to suspect that George meets along the way. However, Ife (Benjamin Clémentine) the Air Raid Warden has to be one of the loveliest characters you're likely to meet. It turns out he was a real person - a Nigerian law student, and his speech during a moment of divisiveness is a true story, as was the one of a 9-year-old saving many from drowning.

Saoirse is as brilliant as always - saint or sinner, you meet the loving mum and her wild side as she takes advantage of free time with George no longer underfoot. In a family where music is the soother, she even sings. However the film does go back and forth in time and it moves quite quickly, that confusion could reign as to whether you're witnessing the past or the present. A bit of a broad brushstroke has been used in parts but McQueen admits to keeping it simple, from a child's perspective - it's either good or bad, right or wrong, and that's it. He refocuses the audience's gaze on war in a way where a bit of sanity could be had, instead of all the complications we put in front of us. He wanted right or wrong, good or bad, and that was it. As a result, the presentation is forthright, uncluttered and uncynical. This is not primarily an action war film but a human drama. It's great to see London in the 40s, the characters are engaging, and the film is filled with an amazing amount of situations that'll keep you interested. There are also injections of serious scenarios that'll immerse you in situations of what it could have been like in its time, as if you were there. It has the power to draw you in.






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