Blitz (dir. Steve McQueen)

By: Adam Freed

Trapped somewhere inside Blitz, a 1940s World War II saga by acclaimed director Steve McQueen, is a film of singular vision, focus and depth. The presented version of McQueen’s Apple TV+ British war story though is a jack of all trades and a master of none. Blitz stars Saoirse Ronan (Brooklyn, The Outrun,) an actress of immeasurable talent, who plays Rita, a single mother desperate to send her son away from London and beyond the reach of the German Blitzkrieg.  Rita’s character though is written considerably more one note when compared to some of Ronan’s more dynamic Academy Award nominated roles. It is with the most sincere respect for McQueen’s filmography that Blitz feels like the least Steve McQueen movie he’s ever directed. When compared to his monumental work 12 Years a Slave (2013) and the endlessly compelling Widows (2018), Blitz feels unfortunately, as if it could’ve been directed by someone with far less of a unique visionary gift.  

The German bombings of London forced its residents into the safety of the underground rail system, which acted as impromptu subterranean bomb shelters.  Due to this daily uncertainty, children were being sent out of England’s capital by the hundreds of thousands.  This is where Blitz’s primary conflict, and meandering subplots, begin to take shape.  Rita’s son George, a nine-year-old biracial child, is steadfast that he wants to remain in London with his mother.  Against his will, George is sent away by train, a fact that he does not accept, and he vows to return to his home, no matter the cost. There are multiple themes running throughout Blitz, none of which ever harmoniously meld together for the film’s benefit. The fact that George is biracial certainly doesn’t go unnoticed in 1940, and he is met with deliberate acts of racism, but those feel rather disconnected from the film’s primary chain of events.  There is a racial undertone that permeates the film, but as bombs drop daily from the sky, the film never has time or space to explore the impact of those undertones sufficiently.

Although it will most likely become a streaming favorite for Apple TV+ subscribers, Steve McQueen‘s Blitz never commits itself to a singular goal.  It feels as if the historical dramatic tension of the Blitzkrieg wasn’t enough, and the Blitz feels compelled to up the ante.  The film’s second billed star Harris Dickinson (Triangle of Sadness, The Iron Claw) is painfully underutilized as a friendly face that never directly interacts with Ronan’s character with purpose. Dickinson’s underwritten Jack is likely a victim of the editing room and one of Blitz’s many narrative missteps.  There is a great film inside Blitz somewhere, but until it is discovered, streaming audiences will have to settle for a serviceable one.

Target Score: 6/10: Although there are genuine moments in Steve McQueen‘s World War II  story Blitz,  the film weighs itself down with a multitude of unnecessary subplots which diminish the intensity of historically accurate events.  

Blitz is included in Movie Archer’s coverage of the 60th Chicago International Film Festival.