Synopsis: Focus on the experiences of one community, this time around the bombings that occurred in the British Capital during the Second World War, specifically London.
The two or three-day time period made by Steve McQueen’s Blitz story should not be wasted in trying to find the time to let the movie unfold. And that is touchy. But this is not a day at the studio’s quiet interpretation of the movie plot. It’s true about how the London film brings out McQueen’s Blitz. The audience is shown a hectic scene right from the start of the movie. For a single moment, the audience is at peace. McQueen in this narrative depicts the battle scenes in the 3rd month of WWII, and all the zing that comes along with it, while a text on the screen states the place and time of the movie. London in September of 1940. This is what an aggressive and very intelligent style of directing a movie should look like. Because McQueen and his fellow composer Hans Zimmer not only provide the viewer with great graphics but also a multitude of powerful sounds and severe bass from the orchestra. Where the sound of the metal-encased hose, while water sprays out at ferocious pressure, swinging heavily and banging against itself in all the chaos, drowns out even the sounds of the roaring flames. Yet the bombs continue to rain down.
This is what can be called hell. People are shown scattering from one place to the other, searching for some cover even if it is the last place they can use. If it’s not the bombing shelters, then they’ll be searching for space in the tube.
With the first images shown in the opening credits of the film, McQueen makes it known to whoever watched the film that, one way or another, this film is likely to upset people to no end, but even more importantly, such a statement sets the audience for another war, that will be quite a few times more interesting than most of this kind of movies nowadays. But even so, McQueen is a director who is able to accommodate some good out of the most bad and horrendous of situations. Just like it is the case with Blitz, which was the closing night presentation during the 62nd edition of the New York Film Festival.
It is indeed quite remarkable that McQueen’s script was based on a true story over eighty years ago yet the plot still holds its ground. We hear Rita (timely portrayed by Saoirse Ronan) instructs her son, “Wait until this is over… then everything will return to normal.” One gets the impression that the filmmakers are addressing the audience directly. It is extremely impractical if a father or a mother has no reservations about sending their children on a train which leaves the city and they never get to see them again. And that’s the drama that makes Blitz so realistic on a personal note. George (Elliott Heffernan, who very early on in his career has managed to deliver arguably the greatest child actor performance) is the son of Rita and in the film, she portrays him as a mother who tries to exempt her child from the threats of London. Both for them or for the countless families that faced the same fate, such situations seem unreal or rather, outlandish.
Even in this scenario, there are several instances where McQueen engages in the deplorable practice of pitting people against machines. Rita is trying to squeeze out a few more words as the chick’s train is being driven away, but when they speak, Naomi’s emotion towers over all the sound.
The inhumane predictably monotonous droning knights bombed the aims of accomplishing what was lost in its awe instilling victims repeated shock. In this movie, sound design experts will more than know the doubts and will compete for the most major gongs in the Academy. It is not merely the volume that disturbs, and also the terror that is created. Rather it almost sounds like something fundamentally evil is going on underneath such conditions. That there is a tipping point on which the very equilibrium of life hangs that if crossed could never be mended. While it was possible to consider Blitz many times as predictable, McQueen`s perspective of narrating this tale is the surefire way of making it false.
Some choices feel like only a McQueen sort of tweak, such as the narrative style of the film and the images of the Londoners of the period. There are many wow moments scattered around Blitz. However, it would be hard to find any other film this year that created as many mouth-gaping moments among the audience as this one. McQueen, in comparison, does not, however, seem to let the audience’s center on it as well. It highlights the fact that this world war has made loss an everyday thing to cope with. There is so much chaos everywhere that even not stepping back for a second to mourn any one catastrophe would be sufficient to make our entire being collapse. Such cutaways are typical of McQueen’s style and he does indeed use this style of cutaways in the form of non-linear flashbacks quite effectively. Audiences probably remember or see such a scenario when such a violent knife is lashed in lifetimes of ex or probably Georgie imagines Rita. These are probably the best rounds in the rounds. They are so great to watch – so it is not surprising that McQueen delivers the most sophisticated pictures in the most ‘glittering’ scenes. Once again, it is not about how a director chooses to show the more challenging task of depicting life before the blitz.
McQueen’s collections, in a way unnerving, depict the beauty and the dreadful past while questioning the essence of human nature.
Some might, rather rashly, assert that Blitz is a work that is compounded by a wide range of contrasts. The act of war brings out the worst of humanity. However, in a good number of the flashbacks that McQueen devises, it could be sternly argued that he juxtaposes the other’s flashbacks with the most vile of hideousness. There is sufficient systematic oppression of inequalities that exist in this society, and racist ideology is rampant. In times of extreme hopelessness, we reminisce and try to recall what and who we aspire to be and the reason why the fight is worth it. But what happens when the aims that we so dearly focused on were never the objective, but just part of a much bigger picture that was the real threat? A threat that everyone knows about, but far too many people in this society choose to ignore? It’s an intriguing viewpoint about battling some of London’s finest unwritten episodes, that Blitz frequently grapples with. Witness how lovely it is when Rita caresses George’s father while dancing, this appreciation is evoked off the screen. These scenes, full of nurturing love and tenderness, are quite simply the highlights of a war movie riddled with soaring blood delight. Till McQueen even introduces the notion which suggests some people not belonging to the faceless association have certain racist viewpoints.
Or how, as the ocean is engulfed in flames and everyone tries to retreat, McGowan had in the past gall to be bigoted, unreasonable, and considerably racist.
This explains why there are members of our species with inherent brutality residing on this Planet when looked at from an Ontological perspective. This would in many ways be an indictment of humanity yet McQueen surely wants to wipe out this side as well. Especially these parts of the film and they are quite often in the style of cliches, and rather emotionally simplified, nevertheless, are important. And this is something that is not hard to believe when one is told that McQueen did a lot of espionage to understand the facts of history, which influenced him a lot as a filmmaker.
In essence, the primary concern of Blitz the film is to demand more from the people in society and the environment as well. Some very disturbing elements in McQueen’s work can be moving scenes and can tug at one’s heart chakra. He is one of our highly rated directors and his recent work does not fail to prove that he is the best in capturing sadness. We talk about the club scene which was more or less developed towards the end of the film. The change is rather abrupt since the filmmaker shifts the audience’s attention from the strictness of a bomb blast to the ostentatiousness of a club. In one stroke his movement changes the centre of interest and gives just a sense of expectations. With great skill, McQueen, shooting in a single take to build the intensity of the scene as long as possible, is always in motion. The editor is on the high performing any fiction and action that is expected on the stage or off the stage. The diegetic sound of the band’s horn increases in gravity until a climax is reached. The lead singer psychs up the crowd in scenario that is amazing considering nearly 90 minutes of nothing but darkness.
In this sequence, we see how McQueen tries to steer the audience away from understanding what is about to happen next.
Such things are possible only for so long. The truth of the matter is quite plain: the reality. In what feels like an extremely aggressive shift, McQueen goes back to this sequence dismissing it as a flashback for the time being. We try hard not to remember the awful glimpses we had during this sequence but this seems to be the only scene inducing a smile. But then again if the agony is this acute, one does not even have the faintest notion of normality. There is a feeling of being impacted along with some form of traumatic resignation, there is a desire to try and seek comfort in such uncomfortable scenarios but this does not make the viewer ignorant of the various unsettling subjects being seen everywhere.
Solace is a concept of infinite meaning. To Rita, it is George. This is especially clear in the sweet, yet sorrowful ballad sequence that McQueen created for Ronan. Rita now performs the role of England to the masses with the help of the BBC and his number that he co-wrote with McQueen, renowned composer Nicholas Brittell, and songwriter Taura Stinson. To a wall of women, plus her war-time coworkers at the munitions factory who prop the war’s machine. It is quite a haunting melody that possesses a rare sense of seeming age; exquisite. Thereafter, one of Rita’s colleagues sprints to the mic ordering the authorities to construct additional covering in the underground train stations. Again, contrast is enjoyable and offers an escape and at the same time is a concern. People do not seek to be immersed in gross disorder, but their anguish ought to be addressed at the same time. They in authority are the ones who should, or more accurately, are the only ones who should. In the most theatrical manner possible.
In contrast to the pulse-racing action of the battle, there are calm periods in the game of Blitz. Daldry, Stephen, the director of this particular film, has the audacity of portraying the imagery of McQueen in a more blaring and unique way, which is often not heard of in a war genre movie.
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