‘Lee’: Kate Winslet’s Quietly Feminist WW2 Passion Project

The World War II movie is well-worn. According to a brisk Google search, people have dedicated nearly 5,000 movies to different points of view and experiences from the conlifct. We’ve seen points of view from soldiers, nurses, civilians, Nazis, Russians, and, now, a former model turned photographer. In Lee, Kate Winslet’s passion project about Lee Miller, the former Vogue and Vanity Fair model, we get a new point of view on the war, one filled with nuance from those who experienced it in the shadows.

Winslet is fantastic in Lee, so good that her performance netted her a Golden Globe nod. The film stars Winslet as Miller, an American photographer and former fashion model who became an acclaimed war correspondent for Vogue magazine during World War II. Andy Samberg co-stars as David Scherman, Miller’s best friend and photographic counterpart. The cast also features notable names like Marion Cotillard, Andrea Riseborough, Noémie Merlant, Josh O’Connor, and Alexander Skarsgård, many of whom joined as favors to Winslet to ensure the movie got made after continual setbacks in the studio system.

Throughout the plot of Lee, we see a woman break through multiple barriers, doing her best to navigate a world evolving in real time as war rages across Europe. Miller’s work during the war resulted in some of the 20th century’s most indelible images, including an iconic photo of herself in Hitler’s bathtub. An emotionally exhausted Miller, with mud fresh on her boots from seeing scores of bodies in the Nazi concentration camps of Auschwitz and Dachau, went into Hitler’s apartment, got naked in his tub, and snapped a photo of herself as a juxtaposition of the brutal realities of the war that changed the world. The film delves into her profound understanding and empathy for women and the voiceless victims of war, showcasing the fragility and ferocity of the human experience.

The cinematography of Lee is brutalist, capturing the horrors of war alongside the mundane realities of daily life in a war zone. First time director Ellen Kuras has done an excellent job, and her attention to the minute and the emotional makes her a director to watch. Lee avoids the hubris of the cowboy American soldier squashing Nazis while the world celebrates. Instead, it’s quieter and more distant in its reflection on how we view tragedy.

Winslet’s performance is central to humanizing Miller, a woman who didn’t ride the coattails of the war after it ended. Her extraordinary life came to light only after her son Antony discovered her photographs following her death from lung cancer in 1997. Miller’s story, intertwined with surrealist icons like Picasso, Dalí, and Cocteau, could have filled an entire series. If anything, the movie doesn’t show enough of her fascinating life before the bombs began to drop, though what it does show is compelling.

Lee is an activation that the past does matter, and events of history do have weight, even if they’re not rooted in the present. It’s a portrait of a woman who crossed boundaries, pushing through both societal and personal limits. The film’s understated tone eschews the macho bravado often seen in the genre, instead leaning into quiet moments that shatter traditional notions of bravery, even if it’s wearing a bra under a pair of fatigues.

While Lee might not fully capture the depth of Miller’s life, it is a humble, thoughtful take on a war movie that prioritizes humanity over spectacle. Kuras and Winslet have created a film that lingers, reminding us that history’s quiet moments and unseen contributors are as significant as the battles themselves.