An Oscar-winning multidimensional artist, Sir Steve McQueen tackles an historic confrontation between forces of good and evil in “Blitz.”
While those born 60 or 70 years after the months-long 1940 Nazi bombing of London may have no clue about this WWII history and the evil represented by Hitler’s merciless bombing of civilian targets or the Brits’ courageous resistance, the subject, McQueen, 54, said in a Zoom interview, remains particularly relevant.
“Unfortunately, right now as we speak, the business of war continues. What my idea, in some ways, is that what this war, what this movie could do is jolt people into realizing what happened here. It didn’t happen in a far-off country.”
Too often movies today memorialize that epic battle with a nostalgic glow tuned to a Big Band soundtrack. “Blitz,” however, is not a romantic look back.
“No,” McQueen agreed. “But there are moments of uplift. Moments of joy. And there should be, because there were some amazing moments where people found joy within tragedy. Which we always do as human beings.
“But this is a movie where we’re looking at, as much as we fight our human enemies, we fight ourselves. That’s the story of what the ‘Blitz’ is. It was our finest hour. But at the same time, it was more complicated than that.”
Saoirse Ronan stars as Rita, a single mother working in a munitions factory whose pre-teen son George (Elliott Heffernan) is evacuated along with a half million other London children to safety in the country.
Only George opts to return to his home whatever the consequences and jumps off his train which begins an odyssey that is the film’s beating heart.
“I found a photograph in my research with this image of this boy on the train station with a large coat and even bigger suitcase with a cat, waiting to be evacuated. This Black child. And I thought, ‘That’s my in!’
“I just thought seeing this story of the Second World War through a child’s eyes would hopefully sensitize us to what war is — because we’re looking at it through his eyes.
“So, all our armor, all our barriers, all the things that we put in front of us to desensitize us fall away in order for us to see clearly what’s going on. So we focus on our George.
“At what point do we turn a blind eye? At what point do we compromise? At what point do we stop listening? And at what point do we pretend that we don’t see?
“Through George’s eyes there’s no ambiguity: Is this a truth? Good and bad? Right or not?”
“Blitz” opens in theaters Nov. 8 and on Apple TV+ Nov. 22
