Written and directed by Oscar winner Steve McQueen, Blitz unfolds during the intense Nazi bombing campaign against the United Kingdom between 1940–1941 that came to be known as the ‘Blitz.’ A BBC article highlights how this devastating episode was glorified, and the notion that nothing and no one could destroy the spirit of Londoners was celebrated. McQueen addresses the damage caused during the Blitz. The film is centered around a working-class family, and the story is told from the perspective of a nine-year-old, George. As a little boy navigating the war-torn streets, George went through a multitude of emotions, and all he wanted at the time was his mother’s embrace.
Spoiler Alert
Why did George jump out of the train?
With the constant bombing, citizens living in London were advised to send their children away. The education department had organized camps for children in the countryside where they could live until the threat had passed. With the situation deteriorating every day, Rita decided to send her son, George, away. As a mother working in an ammunition factory, she knew this was the only way to ensure her son’s safety. Even though it ached her heart to do so, she knew she did not have a choice. Keeping George alive was her priority, but her son refused to go. Rita gifted him a necklace that his father, Marcus, had gifted her. She wanted George to hold on to the necklace and she told him it would keep him safe. Rita believed that her son would find comfort in it whenever he would miss her.
George had a long face when they arrived at the train station. He had begged his mother to let him stay, but to no avail. George ended up expressing how deeply he hated his mother, and he ran away from her. Rita found her son seated inside the train, and she tried to make him understand how she did not have a choice. But George was simply upset, and he did not bid his mother goodbye. After some time, George regretted his last conversation with his mother. He wanted her to know how much he loved her, and he desperately wanted to return home. Boys his age tried to bully him, but he stood up to them. He realized he would never find love and belonging away from home, and he felt the urgency to embrace his mother. George gathered his belongings and jumped out of the train. He followed the railroad track to find his way home. He climbed onto a train heading towards London, and there he met three brothers.
When they were about to be separated at Somerset, the brothers ran away. Their goal was simple–to always stay together and never apart. George enjoyed their company, but it was short-lived. When the train came to a halt all of a sudden, the guard tried to get hold of the kids, but they managed to escape. Tommy encouraged George to follow them and cross the tracks, but George was too afraid. George watched a train run over Tommy; he was petrified, and all he could do was run as fast as he could. He ran to the nearest station and found his way to the exit and hopped on a bus. He wanted to return home, but he did not know how.
What happened to Ife?
Clueless and helpless, George strolled through the streets near Piccadilly Circus, and that was when Ife found him. He was a guard who was tasked with patrolling the streets at night. He brought George along with him to his station, and he promised to drop him off at his home. George could not stop laughing when Ife explained the meaning behind his name. George had always known that he was not a white boy, but he also did not have a Black role model he could look up to. Boys his age made fun of him because of his appearance, and he always felt it was safer to pretend not to be Black than to own up to his identity. George had never had the opportunity to meet his father. Marcus was taken away from Rita by the police one night when they were returning home from a party. A group of racist men attacked Marcus, but the police held him responsible and dragged him away.
Patrolling the streets with Ife helped George realize that one must be proud of their identity. Even though Ife too was subjected to scrutiny and hate, he never let that get to him. As the offspring of an interracial couple, George found hiding behind his White identity safer than admitting that he was Black. That night, when the sirens went off, Ife took George to an underground shelter to stay the night. There, a white couple refused to allow an Indian-origin man anywhere near them. Ife came to the man’s rescue and reminded the couple that the United Kingdom did not practice segregation, unlike their enemy, Hitler, and that was exactly what they were fighting against. George experienced a sense of pride seeing Ife take charge, and before going to sleep, he told Ife with confidence that he was a Black boy. The next morning, when George tried to find Ife, he discovered that the only man he could trust had been killed in the bombing. Ife had risked his life to rescue a citizen. Heartbroken, George left the shelter.
How did George manage to escape from the gang of thieves?
George was lost—he was devastated, he was hungry, and he was all the more desperate to reach home. He stared at the cookies on display at a bakery, and the owner drove him away. A Black woman offered to help George. She promised to buy him a sandwich, but soon George realized he had made a mistake by trusting her. She brought him to a bunch of outlaws who hoped to make money during the crisis. An antique store had been destroyed in the bombing, and they needed a little boy who could secretly enter through the hole in the wall and collect valuables. The leader, Albert, threatened to kill George when he attempted to run away, and he was left with no option but to risk his life and commit theft. He demanded to be taken home after helping the gang, but Albert lost his calm and slapped him. George realized that the gang had no intention of letting him go.
After an elite pub was bombed, the gang entered the establishment and robbed the corpses. George was encouraged to do the same, but he could not, and instead, he ran for his life. George tried to sleep at the dock, but soon the bombings began, and he narrowly escaped death. He entered a tube station where several citizens who could not make it to the shelters had gathered. Without any food in his belly and anyone to comfort him, George sought warmth in his dreams. During his journey, whenever he felt overwhelmed, he thought of his mother, his grandfather, his cat, daisies, and the comforting memory of them playing a song together on the piano. At the tender age of nine, George was exposed to extreme brutality, hatred, deceit, raw sexual desires, death, and very little kindness. But the few people who gave him hope continued to be a part of his memory, and he thought of them often. When George woke up from his sleep, the London Bridge underground station was flooded. Everyone attempted to escape but the exit was closed. George ended up becoming the only ray of hope for the crowd. They held the collapsible gate as far apart as they could to allow George to slide through it and ask for help outside. When George woke up, he was told that he had saved many lives after he managed to make it out alive.
Did George and Rita reunite?
George woke up in the house of a stranger. A woman greeted him and told him all about how he had helped rescue the people stuck in the underground station. She offered to bring George food and take him to his house after he was ready. But soon the doorbell rang, and the woman started speaking to policemen. Since the gang of thieves had connections within the police department, George perhaps assumed that they wanted to forcefully take him away again. After the incident at the underground station became popular and the news of him going missing had also spread across town, the police were likely genuinely searching for George and they would’ve taken him home, but after everything he had been through, he could not trust anyone. George ran away from the stranger’s house, and he realized that he was very close to his home.
In Blitz’s ending, George sprinted through the crowd, trying to spot his house. The closer he got, the more he realized that the bombing had demolished his working-class neighborhood. George was heartbroken when he arrived at his house. The bombing had destroyed it, and he could see his grandfather’s body in the rubble. All of a sudden, he heard his mother call him from behind, and he felt a rush of emotions. He had been longing to hear his mother’s voice again, and he experienced a sense of relief when he did. George perhaps never thought he would meet his mother under such circumstances, but at least she was there to embrace him. With their house demolished and the death of George’s grandpa, life was no longer the same for George and Rita, but at least they had each other and we can only hope that the overcame every challenge they faced together.
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