Before 'Blitz,' Steve McQueen Made This 5-Film Series That Might Be His Masterpiece

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Although sharing a name with one of the legends of the “Golden Age of Hollywood” may have sparked some initial confusion, Steven McQueen has firmly established himself as one of the great directors working today. “Unflinching” is perhaps the best word to describe McQueen’s work, whether he was examining the prison strike in Ireland in Hunger, the horrors of sexual addiction in Shame, the extent of American slavery in 12 Years a Slave, or the fundamentally racist and sexist infrastructure in modern day Chicago in Widows, McQueen has been able to showcase suffering and struggle in a manner that still feel artful. While each of his films demands to be seen on the biggest screen possible, McQueen may have reached his artistic peak with the five-part anthology series Small Axe, which aired on Amazon Prime Video in 2020.

It has not become unusual for acclaimed filmmakers to take on television projects, but McQueen’s approach to Small Axe was unique, even in comparison to Alex Garland’s work on Devs, or what David Lynch did with Twin Peaks: The Return. Small Axe is a collection of five films, each of which focuses on the individual experiences of West Indian immigrants living in England between the 1960s and the 1980s. Each episode is a film in its own right, and while the stories are standalone, they work together to paint a portrayal of the Black experience during a difficult period in history. Small Axe is an unparalleled achievement in bending the mediums of television and film together, and just may rank as the single most ambitious project that McQueen has taken on thus far.

What Is 'Small Axe' About?

The five segments of Small Axe don’t have direct continuity with one another, but considering that they all are either inspired or directly based on historical events, it is possible to view them as an episodic series. Mangrove centers on the infamous “Mangrove Nine” court case from 1971, in which a group of Black British activists were put on trial for protesting outside of a Caribbean restaurant in Notting Hill, West London. Lovers Rock is a far more lyrical, artistic “slice of life” story that centers on two young people who fall in love throughout a wild evening at a reggae party in 1980. Red, White, and Blue is a gripping crime drama that shows how the black London Metropolitan Police Officer Leroy Logan (John Boyega) faced internalized racism when trying to make institutional changes. Alex Wheatle stars Sheyi Cole in the titular role of a black British man who discovers his talent for writing following his 1981 imprisonment. The final segment, Education, is perhaps the most emotional activism by the mother Agnes (Sharlene Whyte), who feels that her young son Kingsley Smith (Kenyah Sandy) has not been given the educational support that he needs based on his race.

Small Axe is able to point out the major issues facing the black British community at this point in history by identifying how radically different their experiences are from their white contemporaries. A story like Mangrove is more complex than The Trial of the Chicago 7 (which was ironically released within the same fall season), as the judiciary system is both opposed to the notion of protest, and unwilling to give its black defendants even the basic level of civil liberties. Lovers Rock is more than a traditional romantic comedy, as it was able to shine a spotlight on a segment of the population that rarely gets represented in mainstream cinema. Even more directly biographical installments like Education and Alex Wheatle succeed because McQueen has the time to explore why these communities and their respective cultures are worth fighting for.

'Small Axe' Shows the Diversity of Steven McQueen’s Filmmaking

Small Axe allowed McQueen to draw from a variety of influences, as the anthology format gave him the freedom to change up his style with each episode. Mangrove is burdened by the weight of its historical importance, but it also makes use of the snappy, quickly-paced framing style that has grown out of fashion since the dominance of courtroom thrillers in the 1990s.Lovers Rock is perhaps the most extreme example of McQueen’s experimentation, as the seemingly formless, ambulatory nature of how the night is structured has a lot in common with the works by many French New Wave auteurs, such as Jean-Luc Godard and François Truffaut.

Even when working within the constraints of a standard biopic,McQueen focuses on pivotal moments instead of just summarizing the key events, which makes for television that is more involving. Red, White, and Blue is just as electrifying as a classic 1970s political thriller from Sidney Lumet or Alan Pakula, it's the heroic performance by Boyega that makes the nature of the issues at hand so frustrating. Alex Wheatle is better seen as an origin of the writer’s stories than a standard recounting of his life, as it singularly centers on what incidents led Wheatle to come up with some of his most iconic works. Education showed a level of intimacy, and even softness, that had been almost entirely absent from the majority of McQueen’s work; although it handles very important topics regarding how neurodivergent students are treated in schools, it is at its heart a very charming story about the love between a mother and son.

'Small Axe' Shines a Spotlight on Black Excellence

Although there are a great deal of setbacks that each episode calls out, Small Axe is ultimately a love letter to the black British community, as it seems intended to remind the survivors that their stories matter. Of course, the fact that the series aired on Amazon Prime Video means that it was available to a wide variety of viewers who may have finished viewing with far more information on this era of history. McQueen has done work in both visual art and documentary storytelling, but Small Axe allowed him to merge visceral poeticism with true stories to make his most profoundly personal project to date.