Movie Review: 'Blitz' is Saorise Ronan at Her Best

Blitz

Directed by Steve McQueen

Written by Steve McQueen

Starring Saorise Ronan, Elliot Heffernan

Released November 1st, 2024

Published January 8th, 2025

Blitz stars Saorise Ronan as Rita, a devoted mother desperately trying to hold her tiny family together amid the chaos of the German bombing campaign against England, historically remembered as The Blitz. With German planes bombarding England by night and few places to find safety and shelter from the explosions, hard choices and sacrifices are asked of all Britons. One sacrifice in particular strikes Rita as her father and friends convince her that the only way to keep her young son George (Elliott Heffernan) safe, is to send him away.

Amid the blitz, parents were giving their children to volunteers to take care of them by taking them to the English countryside, an area less likely to be harmed by German bombing raids. Thousands of English children were separated from their parents with only a little paperwork and the word of aid workers promising that they would ever see their children again. For Rita, the pain is doubled by the fact that she’s already lost her husband to the war and now, her only connection to him could be lost forever as well.

Compounding the issue is the fact that George is mixed race, his mother is white and his father is black. Even with German bombing rendering such discrimination even sillier than it already was, discrimination still persisted, as it does today, and it creates an even greater risk for Rita and George as any one bad actor could decide not to return George to his white mother out of some racist notion. The film only implies this idea without going too in-depth on it. The racial component is there but the danger of war and the unbreakable bond of a mother and her child are the foremost elements of Blitz.

Being a hard headed kid, George abandons the train to the countryside in favor of finding his way back to London and back to his mom. Rita won’t find out about this until George is well and truly lost on the outskirts of London, dangerously hopping train cars with other lost boys his age, and dodging the nightly bombings by the skin of his teeth. Back in London, George faces urban dangers from criminal gangs, looters, and falling buildings. He does find comfort in a brief friendship with an air raid guard, but it’s poignantly short lived.

Blitz is an exceptional film. Writer-Director Steve McQueen passionately captures the story of the German attack on England with the deeply human stories of the people desperately trying to stay alive amid the horror. One notable historic detail that adds to the drama of Blitz is the story of how leaders in London assigned guards not to lead people into the subway tube for safety, but to deter them from going into the tubes. The London Tube would end up saving countless lives but it took every day Londoners to throw aside the guards to find shelter in the Tubes.

McQueen’s storytelling truly shines in the scenes where it’s just little George alone, trying desperately to return to his mom. The wonderful Elliott Heffernan delivers a performance completely free of pretension or precociousness. He was not an actor before Blitz and his lack of actorly polish proves to be a strength. His acting is instinctual, reactive, and lends the film the authenticity of a child improvising, acting on impulse, guided only by his imagination and the fear of death or bodily harm. George is brave and bold but often that bravery is based in childish naivety that perfectly suits a character battling a danger he doesn’t understand.

Saorise Ronan is radiant as Rita. Though her function in the film is often to look pretty and suffer grave worry, Ronan infuses Rita with a steeliness that belies the heartbreak evident in her quieter, lonelier moments. Ronan is one of those performers who can bring depth to any role she plays, no matter how minor. She’s very much a supporting player here and her generosity in supporting young Elliott Heffernan’s performance is a major strength. They have a lovely, well-worn, parent-child chemistry and it’s clear that Heffernan feels more comfortable on screen thanks to Ronan’s support.

Blitz is sadly not much of a part of the conversation for the Academy Awards. The film was fumbled by Apple TV which has demonstrated a real knack for not knowing how to market their movies. In 2024, Apple released movies starring George Clooney and Brad Pitt and Matt Damon and Casey Affleck and somehow, most of the world has no idea these movies with these stars even exist. It’s no wonder then that Blitz dropped like a stone following its brief theatrical release in November. The film is on Apple TV but you’d be forgiven for not knowing that as Apple seems perfectly happy for no one to know about the movies that they buy for big bucks and then bury on their streaming service for reasons that must make sense to someone. Someone who is not me.

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