BLITZ
War torn: Evacuee George (Elliott Heffernan) goes on a journey of self-discovery.
Top to bottom:
Blitz spirit: Rita (Saoirse Ronan), son George and grandfather Gerald (Paul Weller); Air-raid warden Ife (Benjamin Clementine); Rita and George shelter in the Underground.
Look out for Jamaican-born, British-based dub poet Linton Kwesi Johnson as the Oracle, a street orator addressing the crowds on bustling London streets.
FOR Mc QUEEN & COUNTRY
★★★★
OUT 1 NOVEMBER (CINEMAS), 22 NOVEMBER (APPLE TV+) / CERT 12A / 120 MINS
DIRECTOR
Steve McQueen
CAST
Saoirse Ronan, Elliott Heffernan, Paul Weller, Harris Dickinson, Stephen Graham
PLOT
Evacuated during the Blitz by his loving mother Rita (Ronan), nine-year-old George (Heffernan) jumps off the train and embarks on a long journey home.
THERE’S A SCENE early on in Steve McQueen’s Blitz in which Rita (Saoirse Ronan), a munitionsfactory worker with a talent for singing, reluctantly packs off her young, mixed-race son George (Elliott Heffernan) to the countryside to avoid the horrors of continuous bombing. It’s a scenario we have seen a million times before — a tearful train-station goodbye —but McQueen makes it heart-rending. Over its two-hour running time, Blitz pulls off this trick constantly. Seen through McQueen’s vibrant but clear-eyed lens, it takes stock situations from countless creaky black-and-white films and makes them feel raw, real and fresh.