Blitz (2024 Film)

''Blitz'' is a 2024 historical war drama film written, produced and directed by Steve McQueen. The film stars Saoirse Ronan and Elliott Heffernan (in his film debut), supported by Harris Dickinson, Benjamin Clementine, Kathy Burke, Paul Weller, and Stephen Graham.

''Blitz'' had its world premiere as the opening film at the BFI London Film Festival on 9 October 2024, and was released in selected cinemas in the United Kingdom and United States on 1 November 2024, followed by a streaming release on Apple TV+ on 22 November 2024. The film received generally positive reviews from critics.

Plot

In London during World War II, nine-year-old George is the mixed-race son of a white woman, Rita, and Marcus, a black man who was deported to Grenada. George remains in London after the Nazi bombing has begun. Rita’s father, Gerald, encourages Rita to evacuate George to the country for his safety. He is evacuated from the city amidst the Blitz, but defiantly jumps off the train to return to his mother. George gets on a goods train and meets three brothers. The next morning, George and the brothers escape from the train, although one of them is killed by an oncoming train.

In flashbacks, George is called a “Black bastard” by a neighbourhood boy, and Marcus is attacked by some ruffians because he is with Rita as they leave a club.

Rita sings a song on a BBC radio broadcast from the factory where she works. Afterwards, her colleagues protest and ask for the tube stations to be opened as shelters. Rita is criticised because of her son, whilst spending time in a local pub. Jack, Rita’s friend, argues with a man who was rude to Rita.

George arrives in London but cannot find his home in Stepney. George meets Ife, an air raid warden originally from Nigeria, who cares for him and brings him to a shelter. George wakes up the next morning and learns that Ife was killed trying to help a woman evacuate her house during the bombing.

George is wandering the streets when Jess, a member of a gang of thieves, pretends to help him. Instead, George is threatened to help them steal from a damaged jewellery store and a bombed out club. He escapes from the gang and ends up in an overcrowded underground station.

As the morning nears, the Tube station begins to flood. No one can escape because the gates were locked to prevent further overcrowding the night before. George is able to escape with the help of others. George gets help and the gates are opened allowing people to escape.

George wakes up in a strange bed. A woman is seemingly helpful, but has called the police because there is a missing child notice posted for George. George escapes from the house. In reaching his house, George sees his grandfather has died in the bombing but is quickly reunited with his mother.

Cast

Production

Development

In October 2021, it was announced that McQueen would write, direct and produce a new feature film titled ''Blitz'' for New Regency, with Lammas Park producing alongside Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner of Working Title Films. In March 2022, McQueen confirmed his next project was going to be about Londoners during the Blitz of World War II and that he had discussed this with Anne, the Princess Royal, as she awarded him his knighthood at Windsor Castle. In June 2022, it was announced that Apple TV+ had picked up the distribution rights. Producers are New Regency's Arnon Milchan, Yariv Milchan and Michael Schaefer.

Casting

In September 2022, it was announced that Saoirse Ronan would be heading the cast and Adam Stockhausen leading the production design. In December 2022, Harris Dickinson, Erin Kellyman, Stephen Graham and Kathy Burke were added to the cast, along with singer-songwriter Paul Weller in his feature film acting debut. Later that month, Benjamin Clementine, Leigh Gill, Mica Ricketts, CJ Beckford, Hayley Squires and Sally Messham were announced as joining the cast.

Filming

Principal photography began in London in November 2022. Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden was used as a base. In January 2023, filming took place close to London Waterloo station. Later that month, special effect crews simulated bombs hitting the water in the River Thames at Wapping. Filming also took place in the London borough of Greenwich. In February 2023, it was reported that production had relocated to Hull's old town, with a filming schedule of two weeks. The sound-mixing took nine weeks to complete.

Music

“The idea behind the whole thing is the story of a child who is trying to get through war-torn London, which has been bombed all the time, and trying to find his mother again. What I wanted to do is, I wanted the grownups – you, me, the grownups – to feel the same sort of disassociation, being completely lost in the world, being illogical, not knowing how to get there, not knowing how to get home, not knowing how to find home, and having that horror, that fear that you’ll never find it again; the horror of these massive bombs coming down. So the only way I could think of doing it was to write music which was so brutal and so absolutely violent.” - Hans Zimmer

While Hans Zimmer has previously ventured musically into World War II with films like ''Dunkirk'' and ''Pearl Harbor'', working on ''Blitz'' allowed him to look at the era, and a facet of his own family history, in a new way. Zimmer revealed that his mother had been "a refugee in England during the Second World War, and Steve McQueen gave me one direction. He said ‘After you watch this film, you will understand your mother better’", during a Deadline Sound & Screen event. The story moved Zimmer to create a score to reflect the unrelenting chaos and brutality of the blitz: “This score is unmitigatedly horrendous", he said. "It is an absolute horrible score, it’s so dissonant, it’s so committed to this atonality."

Release

''Blitz'' premiered as the opening film at the BFI London Film Festival held at the Royal Festival Hall on 9 October 2024. This was McQueen's third directorial effort to do so after 2018's ''Widows'' and 2020's ''Mangrove'', which was part of his ''Small Axe'' anthology series. The film was then released in selected cinemas in the US and UK on 1 November 2024, before streaming on Apple TV+ from 22 November.

Reception

Critical response

Writing in ''The Guardian'', Peter Bradshaw scored the film three out of five, and described it as a "well made and unashamedly old-fashioned wartime adventure, heartfelt and rousing and – yes – a bit trad overall", and said that it was "a film about the blitz of 1940 which tries to restate the accepted imagery, the dramatic stock footage and familiar ideas but also absorb revisionist approaches".

Leonard Maltin, reviewing ''Blitz'' for his own blog, described it as "powerful and somewhat disarming" and "one of the year’s best films". However, in the ''Chicago Reader'', critic Kylie Bolter, while praising the score, cinematography and some of the performances, said the film didn’t "feel complete or unique". Peter Travers, for ABC News, summarised ''Blitz'' as "an indisputably good movie", but concluded that despite "all the elements eingin place for something extraordinary", it "misses the mark". Critics also praised Yorick Le Saux's "stunningly captured" images for their "stark beauty".

Accolades

References

Works cited

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External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Blitz
American films based on actual events
American historical drama films
American war drama films
American World War II films
Apple TV+ original films
Battle of Britain films
British films based on actual events
British historical drama films
British war drama films
British World War II films
War drama films based on actual events
Films about mother–son relationships
Films directed by Steve McQueen
Films produced by Tim Bevan
Films produced by Eric Fellner
Films produced by Arnon Milchan
Films scored by Hans Zimmer
Films set in London
Films shot in London
Regency Enterprises films
Working Title Films films
World War II aviation films
World War II films based on actual events
Films shot at Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden
English-language historical drama films