The narrative unfolds through the eyes of George (Elliott Heffernan), a biracial 9-year-old who is sent from London to the countryside as air raids target his city.
Written by SIMRAN HANS and SARAH ECKINGER
In a train station in London, a young Black boy grips a suitcase tightly. Oversized in his coat, he wears a flat cap and a serious demeanor, moving forward into his new life as an evacuee. This photograph, captured during the eight-month siege of British towns by German forces in World War II, fueled the inspiration for Steve McQueen’s latest film “Blitz,” which is presently showing in select theaters.
The story is narrated from George’s viewpoint, a biracial 9-year-old who escapes London to the countryside as bombs shake his city. During the journey, he leaps from the train, leaving his suitcase behind and navigating his way back to his mother, Rita (Saoirse Ronan), in East London.
In the film’s research phase, both McQueen and production designer Adam Stockhausen were continually struck by “the contradiction, and the sorrow,” displayed in visuals of life in London amid the bombings, Stockhausen shared in a recent conversation. McQueen would encounter images of a woman clearing debris from her destroyed home or a man quietly smoking in a chair surrounded by ruins, and he constructed scenes around those moments, Stockhausen added.
The film’s production design is incredibly detailed — Stockhausen had previously teamed up with McQueen on “12 Years a Slave” and “Widows” — and through George’s eyes, 1940s London becomes a vast maze. Representing the city’s breadth was vital to the plot, Stockhausen noted, but filming entirely within London proved too complicated and costly, prompting the team to steer clear of CGI environments.
Thus, “Blitz” was also filmed in various other British towns, such as Hull and Chatham, along with scenes shot on a soundstage. Stockhausen elaborated on how his team constructed an authentic representation of Blitz-era London for the film and subsequently deconstructed it.
The adventure starts at Paddington Station
At the outset of the film, Rita brings a hesitant George to the bustling Paddington Station, the authentic departure point for real evacuees during the Blitz. Maneuvering through throngs of children, Rita finally gets George onto a train.
McQueen was adamant that this scene be filmed in an actual train station, Stockhausen stated, and after reviewing a selection of England’s main train stations and their terminals, they decided on Hull Paragon Station in East Yorkshire, over 170 miles north of London.
The station’s impressive, domed structure of stone and glass was a key factor: “The grandeur of the main stations in London carries that ambiance,” Stockhausen remarked.
Within a munitions plant
Following George’s departure, Rita goes back to her job at a munitions factory. It was essential, Stockhausen noted, to convey the harsh realities of the Blitz’s devastation, alongside its recognized spirit of patriotism.
“While people were coming together,” he explained, the British were also actively “manufacturing bombs to target the Germans. Lives were lost on both sides.” He and McQueen scoured the Pathé film archives for documentary and historical recordings of bomb production facilities in Britain.
“We wanted to understand, what’s the procedure? What does that operator do with that equipment?” Stockhausen commented. “What are those wheelbarrows carrying with round metal?”
Constructing a bomb shelter
Ife (Benjamin Clementine), a thoughtful air raid warden, escorts George to a government bomb shelter located beneath the Royal Exchange. With its intersecting steel beams, this shelter was intended to appear more structured than the shelter where Rita volunteers in a less affluent neighborhood of the city, according to Stockhausen.
Though a genuine bomb shelter still exists at the London Transport Museum, the production chose not to utilize it as it dated from 1944, which would not align with the film’s setting in 1940, Stockhausen explained.
Consequently, the production created the government bomb shelter inside a long, narrow shed designed for rope making in Chatham, southeastern England.
Nightlife in London
A flashback recounts the tale of Rita’s romance with George’s father, Marcus (CJ Beckford), a Grenadian native, and transports viewers to a London nightclub. “It was crucial to portray the often-overlooked truth, that a vibrant community of color was leading this kind of lifestyle in London during that era,” Stockhausen remarked.
The film also depicts nightlife during the Blitz, including scenes at the renowned Café de Paris in London’s West End, highlighted by a performance from musician and dancer Ken “Snakehips” Johnson (played by Devon McKenzie-Smith). This real-life Johnson met his demise in an explosion when the Café de Paris was bombed in 1941.
During the Blitz, while London “was dark and quiet at street level, a vibrant underbelly existed that had been forced underground,” Stockhausen stated about the burgeoning club culture. The stark contrast from a design viewpoint was “intriguing,” he added.
How to create a flood in a station
In October 1940, a bomb struck above Balham underground station, causing a bus to plunge into the cratered street and rupturing a water main. The resulting flood tragically claimed the lives of nearly 70 individuals sheltering within the underground station. This calamity provided inspiration for a similar scene in “Blitz.”
Typically, to simulate a flood, a set would be constructed within a large tank that production could manage. However, “in London, there isn’t a tank large enough” to inundate the station set, Stockhausen noted, and neither was there one at the soundstage in use.
Thus, supervising art director Oli van der Vijver and construction manager Dan Marsden constructed the underground set on a dry stage, transforming it into a water-holding structure. “We thought, ‘Let’s waterproof it thoroughly and bolster it with significant steel supports outside so it withstands the water pressure, and let’s just pray it holds and doesn’t collapse,’” Stockhausen shared.
On the first day of shooting this scene, while special effects supervisor Hayley Williams operated a pump system to flood the environment, the possibility of failure was “extremely nerve-wracking,” Stockhausen recounted.
Creating a flood-capable set rather than submerging a set in a flood tank “was a revolutionary approach to the concept,” he said. “But ultimately, it proved very effective.”
