For writer/director Steve McQueen, “Blitz” is not just another war story.
The film is set during the Blitz in the 1940s, when the city of London was under the constant barrage of bombs from the German army. McQueen decided, though, to depict the horror of war through the eyes of a child named George, played by Elliot Heffernan, who was sent to the countryside for safety, by his mother, Rita, played by Saoirse Ronan.
“What was so important to me was to give a platform to things that were unseen that needed to be seen, that were true and needed to be told,” he says.
McQueen was inspired by a photo he came across while doing research for his anthology series “Small Axe,” of a small Black boy holding a suitcase. “It was just this sweet, beautiful, cute boy, and I though, OK, I need to know your story,” he says. “I built the story around him, from the house that he lived in as a small nest to a broader, wider world.”
As always with his work (which also includes “Hunger,” “Shame,” and “12 Years a Slave,” historical accuracy is paramount to him, so he delved into research into the time period in British history and the multicultural experience of Londoners at the time. That painstaking attention to detail is what has earned him accolade throughout his career, including an Academy Award for Best Picture for “12 Years a Slave,” along with a nomination for Best Director for that film.
McQueen admits, though, what gave him anxiety was not the set pieces or the elaborate production or the challenges of recreating wartime London. Instead, it was the casting — finding the right child to play George, and ensuring that he would have chemistry with Ronan. “When Saoirse met Elliot, she immediately took him under her wing,” he says. “The bond and love and the respect and the admiration was there for each other. What you see [between them] on film, that’s real.”
Another huge source of relief for the filmmaker was learning that Ronan could sing. He’d written the song “Winter’s Coat,” along with Nicholas Brittell, inspired by his own father’s death, as a tactile reminder of the loss of a loved one. Ronan had told him she could “hold a tune,” which he confessed made him a bit nervous, but then came the day when the vocal coach called. “I could hear the smile on the phone,” he recalls with a laugh. “She can really sing!”
With his skilled department heads, including cinematographer Yorick Le Saux, production designer Adam Stockhausen, and costume designer Jacqueline Durran, McQueen’s goal was to make sure that his film paid tribute to all those who have been left out of history, whose stories have never been told. “We’re saying something completely different,” he says. “No one has ever seen these images before.”
McQueen recalls leaving a recent screening when a Chinese man approached him to share his memory of hiding in the London Underground when he was just three years old. The man told McQueen, “Thank you for allowing me to be seen.”
