Steve McQueen's Blitz is an incredibly watchable and engaging film that vividly portrays wartime London. Through his lens, McQueen challenges the commonly held notion that Londoners weathered the horrors of the Blitz with unwavering cheer, a stiff upper lip, and unity. Instead, Blitz underscores the complex layers of a city already defined by its diversity, which McQueen portrays as teeming with cultural resilience. In particular, the East End, a refuge for those escaping persecution, is shown not merely as a site of suffering but as a resilient, multicultural community that speaks to the true character of wartime London. This challenge to the rose-tinted "keep calm and carry on" narrative is essential, grounding the film in a more inclusive historical reality.
However, Blitz occasionally struggles under the weight of its grandeur. The film ambitiously tackles numerous stories and subplots, making it challenging to give each the attention it deserves. One subplot that particularly suffers is the portrayal of an Underground station flooding after a bomb hit—a moment famously depicted in Atonement, with the actual location in Balham. Relocating it to London Bridge heightens the fictionalization of the event. Many may leave the cinema, believing the event that caused the death of 68 people never happened as such McQueen's portrayal, though compelling, doesn't capture the same impact as Atonement, which coincidentally also starred Saoirse Ronan.
McQueen briefly gestures toward class disparities in air-raid conditions, notably by referencing the Stepney Communist Party, which pushed for equitable access to safe shelters. Yet one pivotal moment that could have underscored this tension—the Party's dramatic occupation of the Savoy Hotel to protest the gross inequality in shelter conditions—goes unmentioned. This action, poor East Enders storming the grand West End hotel, forced the government's hand to open Tube stations to be used as public shelters.
Despite these narrative oversights, _Blitz _remains a remarkable and impactful portrayal of London during its most challenging times. It offers a raw, multifaceted perspective that reshapes our understanding of wartime endurance and unity, making the audience feel the gravity of the historical events depicted.