When London was under attack

 

   I’ve read that some critics have been disappointed by director Steve McQueen’s Blitz. It’s true: McQueen’s war-time opus has the familiar feel of a well-crafted movie that, at least on the surface, breaks little new ground as it tells a story set in London during the intense German bombings of World War II.  

    Stylistically, Blitz makes no major leaps, but that doesn't mean McQueen, who also wrote the screenplay, hasn't provided a rich, nuanced portrait of London under stress. McQueen's screenplay makes room for admirable and despicable behavior, calling attention to incidences of racism that inflected London, even in a situation that demanded unity.

   McQueen’s screenplay revolves around the bond between a mother (a strong Saoirse Ronan) and her nine-year-old biracial son George (Elliott Heffernan). Marcus, George’s father (CJ Beckford) was deported to Grenada from Britain, leaving Ronan’s Rita and her father (Paul Weller) to raise the boy. Marcus was arrested while defending himself from an unprovoked attack by whites.

   Rita and her dad are “good” Brits, but George can be treated cruelly by kids who won't accept him. Still, McQueen never turns the plucky Hefferman into a victim. The kid has heart.

    The plot begins in earnest when Rita convinced that London is too dangerous for a nine-year-old, sends George to the country where English children were considered to be safe from German bombs. It's painful for her and even more painful for George, who experiences his mother's decision as rejection.

   McQueen has difficulty accommodating the various plot threads. In pre-war flashbacks, we learn how Rita and Marcus met, and the narrative eventually fractures, focusing on Rita’s life in London (working with other women at a bomb factory) and George’s adventures. He jumps off the train en route to the country, works his way toward London, and eventually finds himself being exploited by a thief who evokes memories of Dickens' Fagin (Stephen Graham). 

    This episode may not quite fit with the rest of the movie, but Blitz is no Oliver Twist redux. Throughout, the horror of the Blitz never fades: Firefighters battle chaos and flames, and frightened residents seek refuge in London’s subways. McQueen shows a horrific sequence of flooding in a subway station where residents are sheltering. 

    Poor George; he reaches London but doesn't know how to find his neighborhood. At one point, a noble Nigerian civil defense worker (Benjamin Clementine) takes George under wing, but mostly the kid fends for himself.

   McQueen (12 Years a Slave) takes a moment that has been glorified as a symbol of solidarity, determination, and courage and expands its meaning. Blitz doesn’t trash an important part of the British story, but it widens the lens through which we see it.

  That's a worthy accomplishment.