Blitz

WWII munitions worker Rita Hanway (Saoirse Ronan) reluctantly agrees to send her biracial 9 year-old son George (newcomer Elliott Heffernan) into the countryside to escape the German bombing of East London, but George is adamant he does not want to leave home and jumps off the train one hour out of the station. The little boy will make his treacherous way home over three days during the "Blitz."

Laura's Review: B-

Writer/director Steve McQueen ("Hunger," "12 Years a Slave") is in a WWII phase after last year's 'Occupied City' and now this film, inspired by the photograph of a small black boy holding a suitcase during London's evacuations during the Blitz. Although McQueen effectively portrays the horror of bombs dropping, close-ups of the devices rendered into static then white Michaelmas daisies, the film is more adventure story than war movie, leaning heavily into such tales as Charles Dickens' 'Oliver Twist,' 'Pinocchio' and 'The Wizard of Oz,' George's exploits cross cut with his mother's war efforts turned frenzied attempt to find him back home.

Both George and his mother face racism, but are relatively happy living together with George's maternal grandfather Gerald (The Jam's Paul Weller) and their well fed cat Olly, delighting in gathering around the piano for a song or two. But as more and more devastation is rained down upon London, the trio having to fight to be let into the underground during one raid, Rita makes her difficult decision, agonizing when George declares 'I hate you' on the platform and refuses to look her way as the train leaves the station. After being called names aboard the train with the little girl sitting across from him standing up for him, George jumps.

Back home, Rita works alongside friends Doris (Erin Kellyman, "The Green Knight") and Tilda (Hayley Squires, "I, Daniel Blake"), their hair gathered up in scarves as Hans Zimmer's ("Dunkirk") inventive score accentuates the working of machinery. She's also been chosen for a live radio broadcast celebrating munitions workers across the country, but after she sings sweetly into the BBC microphone, her coworkers begin to protest the locking of underground stations and all hell breaks loose. But when Rita is later called up into a manager's office, it is not about this incident, but to meet with two evacuation officials who inform her that George is now missing and being actively searched for. Rita goes ballistic, walking off the job to search for her son.

We will weave back and forth between her story, largely seen as showing George's photograph and volunteering at a shelter for those who've lost their homes, and George's far more involved one. He'll meet people both kindly, like Blitz watchman Ife (Benjamin Clémentine) from the Ivory Coast who takes him by the hand, and not, like Jess (Mica Ricketts), who promises the hungry lad a sandwich but takes him to Albert (Stephen Graham, "The Irishman") and Beryl (Kathy Burke, "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy"), who use him for his size to enter bombed out buildings to pillage. After hopping a train (another opportunity for Zimmer's score to align with machinery), he'll meet young brothers Tommy (Thomas Aitch), Archie (Charlie Hodson-Prior) and Ian (Tommy Daley), who accept him and join him on the train's roof. Later, he'll exhibit bravery when the tube is flooded, squeezing through an underwater gate to get help, an act that finally gets him recognized and sent home.

Racism is a prominent theme throughout, Rita branded for having had a child with a black man, a Grenadian named Marcus (CJ Beckford) who was attacked unprovoked one night, then led away by cops only to be deported, Rita left screaming his name on the street. We see a door slammed angrily in Ife's face when he requests a resident turn off their lights during blackout. George is frequently referred to as a monkey. McQueen will also feature black entertainer Ken 'Snakehips' Johnson (Devon McKenzie-Smith) performing at a rollicking Café de Paris nightclub until everyone stops to hear the bomb whistling overhead, a scene later made ghoulish when Albert's gang enters to strip dead patrons of their jewels.

But while George's adventures are clear cut, the picture back home is only sketched in. We're left to wonder why the underground is locked off from residents seeking shelter. Neighborhood rescue worker Jack (Harris Dickinson) stands up for Rita when his mates are rude to her and helps her wander about looking for George, but although he's clearly attracted to her the relationship is left undefined, Dickinson's participation a bit of a mystery. It is not clear why Rita volunteers at the shelter established by (the real life) Mickey Davies (Leigh Gill, "Joker") when she is searching for her son, but McQueen uses the opportunity to again note racism when an English couple attempt to section off the area where an Indian man sleeps. Rita comforts a little girl orphaned by the Blitz, a stand-in for her son.

"Blitz" is a rousing adventure story and a reminder of both heroism and treachery during wartime. The film is unevenly balanced, though, and it ends too abruptly with a final tragedy.

Robin's Review: B-

Early in WW2, the Nazis unleashed a devastating bombing campaign on England’s cities, especially London. Rita (Saoirse Ronan), to protect her young son George (Elliott Heffeman), sends him out of the city for the safety of the countryside. But the boy will have nothing to do with being separated from his mom during the “Blitz”

Director-writer-producer Steve McQueen brings us a personal story about a mother and her son against the backdrop of war and the Nazi blitz. Rita is devoted to her youngster and will go to great lengths to protect him, even if it means sending him away.

At the time, during 1940, the British government encouraged (demanded?) parents to send their children to remote parts of the country to protect them from the Nazi bombs. Rita, ever protective, makes the arrangements and takes George to the train station and says her tearful goodbye. His last words to her, though, are “I hate you!” devastating his already frantic mother.

This is where the story splits and divides its time equally between Rita’s coping with her grief and George stubbornly deciding to jump the train and head home. We have two journeys, one real and one metaphorical and, of the two, George’s harrowing incredible journey to get back to his mom is the more intriguing.

Rita’s story, once George is gone, is one of coping with her loss and trying to make a new life without her son there. She pals with her friends, sings for the BBC and, then, she is told that George is missing. She declares that she will search for him until found. Saoirse Ronan, on the heels of the very different “The Outrun,” does well as the worried mother.

Meanwhile, the youngster faces great dangers and experiences the kindness of others – and prejudice toward the mixed race child. Newcomer Elliott Heffeman does a decent job showing his resolve, confusion and determination to get home.

I remarked that this is an unusual film choice for Steve McQueen – a historical drama about a mom and her son set during a frightening time for the Brits. Somehow, though, the story does not have the heart I expected and that is a disappointment.

Apple releases "Blitz" in select theaters on 11/1/24, expanding on 11/8/24 before premiering on Apple TV+ on 11/22/24.