Review Tales

Steve McQueen is one of my favorite directors working today. His direction has always been meticulous and detailed, presenting stories and ideas in a way that takes seen-before concepts and makes them feel new and original. Blitz was a film I was pretty excited about when it was first announced. Just the idea of a new Steve McQueen film was exciting and interesting and to hear Saoirse Ronan (Mostly known for Lady Bird and The Grand Budapest Hotel) was also pretty exciting knowing how talented of an actress she is. 

When the trailer was released, it definitely seemed a tad cliche, but I still had hope that McQueen would be able to pull it off as he has done with his other films. The film had gotten some pretty mixed buzz and now sits at a 3.2 on Letterboxd and a 6.7 on Metacritic. Even with these issues, I still had some little hope in my heart that I would be on the positive side. Unfortunately, I wasn’t.

The Talented Career of Steve McQueen

McQueen first made it onto the scene with his 2008 debut, Hunger. A fantastic film about the real story of Bobby Sands, an IRA member who led the 1981 hunger strike in Ireland during The Troubles. Hunger was a well-thought-out, brutal, and meticulous film that really made us feel a lot of what the main character was feeling. He then made my personal favorite of his in 2011, Shame, which told the story of a man suffering from a porn and sex addiction. 

Similarly to Hunger, he really knew how to make us understand and feel for this character, even when he did things that were not great, Fassbender’s performance also contributed to this in both Hunger and Shame. After Shame, McQueen would make probably his most successful film commercially, 12 Years A Slave in 2013. 

A harrowing film about the real-life story of Solomon Northup who was abducted and sold into slavery during the pre-Civil War period. It would be a little while before McQueen would release his next feature-length film, Widows in 2018. Widows was a fantastic drama that really did what McQueen does best, take concepts that are maybe usually cliche or seen before and present them in original or unique ways. 

He would then make his successful Small Axe series in 2020 and a few documentaries before releasing his most recent film the main topic of this article, is Blitz, a film about a young boy who is forced to evacuate during the Blitz in Britain during World War II.

Promising Beginnings

Blitz starts off very promising with a decently directed opening involving firefighters after a bombing, the scene that transitions this scene to the plot is also great as it does a good job at symbolizing a bomb falling from the sky. It was like the film was almost trying to trick me into thinking it was going to be another great McQueen film, but soon it would be clear this was not on the same level. 

We are also treated to a pretty nice scene between the main character, George (Elliott Heffernan), and his mother, Rita (Saoirse Ronan) bonding together before they are forced to evacuate to a shelter due to a bombing. This entire sequence is also decent and like I said, it really did feel like the film was starting off well. It is once the plot actually starts to kick in is when the problems start to show.

Not-So Promising Continuation

One major issue with Blitz is its overall cliche storytelling without any form of spice like McQueen’s others. Everything after these opening scenes is for the most part boringly presented and executed, Sometimes even laughable. Elliot Hefferman’s performance is not great and usually ruins quite a bit of scenes. 

For example, when he first gets on the train, the way he acts angry at his mother just is not very convincing and feels very wooden. Ronan does as good as she can with this scene along with many others, but you can tell she is acting circles around Hefferman and it really ruins a lot of scenes with them together or even when Hefferman is alone. 

A lot of the child acting in this film feels very forced, especially on the train. It all just sounds and feels very silly. The plot regarding Ronan’s character, Rita, is slightly more interesting as the performances are better and so are the way it handles its themes, but even then there are still silly moments and the overall film feels either cliche or corny. 

There is one scene in particular that stands out as genuinely bad. A while after George escapes the train he gets onto another with a few boys, after they try to get off the train and are found by the train conductor and employees they are chased onto a set of multiple tracks. Three of the kids run onto one side of the tracks while George stays on the other side in fear, one of the kids even stands on the tracks to get closer and yell to George. 

What follows is a very embarrassingly edited sequence where that kid is then ran over, the editing makes it hard to tell what had even happened and seems like a result of censorship or something along those lines, which is weird coming from a director who has made films like 12 Years A Slave that has many messed up moments even involving children. 

Not only did it feel out of place, but it was also just confusingly presented and ruined any flow the film had up to that point.

Another issue with Blitz is the way it handles its social commentary, a lot of it is without complexity or nuance. Every moment that they try to have a meaningful moment feels very forced and obligatory. 

When I watched Widows before making this review, one of my favorite aspects was how nuanced everything was and how it really felt like everyone had skeletons in their closet or played some role in the overarching issue, here the issues and problems this film presents feel like an after-thought and felt like they weren’t supposed to be there in the first place. 

A lot of these issues would be expected in a Sam Mendes or some other Oscar Bait director’s movie, but not McQueen.

Not All Is Bad in Retrospect

Now, even with all of these issues, there are positives. As I have said, the first few minutes are pretty decent. Also, the film has some great production design and solid side performances from the adult actors. I also feel like it ends off pretty well, even having an unexpected death in the end that was actually sort of effective. I feel like this film has moments and fragments of McQueen’s talent here, but the whole thing feels alien and soulless compared to his other work.

Disappointing Overall

Overall, Blitz is a disappointing film from such a talented director like McQueen. The film is not without its positives, but I fear its negatives far outweigh them and make for an overall frustrating experience. I really hope that this was just a fluke and McQueen’s future work is an improvement. He is one of the most fascinating directors today who really feels like he trusts and respects his audience, so it is sad to see something so belittling, cliche, and pandering from him.