There are a lot of WW2 documentaries out there that seem to be airing every day on multiple channels, so there is an audience out there. The question is, is there anything new to be said about WW2 and the Blitz in particular?
With this new NETFLIX documentary that uses testimony from those who were there and restored colourised footage the answer is a definite, yes.
Hitlers ultimately failed, brutal air attack on the UK is juxtaposed with the stoic resistance of the inhabitants of towns and cities across the country who refused to be beaten down.
There are no talking head experts, instead we get the sometimes-harrowing stories of quiet heroism and endurance from those who were there. We also get some great coloured footage of St Pauls and Winston Churchill, both of which are patriotic symbols of the Blitz.
BRITIAN AND THE BLITZ reminds me of a cross between the Steve McQueen film of The Blitz and the drama, Atonement. That’s not a bad thing as I enjoyed both and it is important that the memory of what our relatives went through is celebrated and remembered.
Throughout the 77 minutes of this documentary the audience gets to “meet” several survivors of this horrific situation. One standout was Eric Brady who was five years old when his school was bombed and flattened. He survived, but his teachers and his sister weren’t so lucky. It’s a very moving testimony.
Other survivors of the incessant bombing were a 17-year-old fireman called Richard Holsgrove and Edith Heap, who was among the female work force and worked as a Plotter for the Royal Air Force tracking planes. Then there was Joan Wyndham, who lived in Chelsea and was an art student who recalled her time clubbing, whilst the bombs were going off in the city.
All these stories are the narrative support of this documentary, whilst providing the intimate details of their survival within the larger story of the Blitz that lasted over 290 days during 1940-41.
The real message though, is that despite the danger, fear and loss, life continued with love affairs, work and feeding the kids going hand in hand with the falling bombs. That is the real heroism.
What I found interesting was that the director Ella Wright did offer context to the events being shown. My favourite bit was adding a first-person commentary from a German pilot who said that Hitler’s ruthless strategies to bomb civilians was “completely idiotic.”
So, it seems that for the residents being attacked it was a duty to stay strong and live their lives with meaning, while the German pilots dropping the bombs seemed to realize the futility of what they were doing. Their aggression was devoid of real meaning.
With a multitude of WW2 documentaries out there, you could be forgiven for giving BRITAIN AND THE BLITZ a miss as you have heard it all before.
Don’t. Some historical events need to be repeated, and this one does it with great photography, startling images and heartfelt testimony from those who lived through it.