Lee conveys a powerful visual message about Nazis and a courageous photographer named Lee Miller who was determined to photograph what she was seeing in the midst of World War II.

Lee is told in retrospect. It’s based on “The Lives of Lee Miller” written by Lee Miller’s son, Antony Penrose. Antony didn’t know what his mother had done during the war until after her death in 1977. He discovered boxes of her photographs in the attic and stitched together this story based on the photos.

The film begins with a young man (Josh O’Connor) interviewing an older Lee Miller, asking about her life and her work during the war. As she tells her story, we flash back to people and places from her past, with a bit of voice over narration from Kate Winslet as Lee Miller.

Before the war, Lee hung around with artists and poets doing the only three things she was good at: drinking, having sex, and taking photographs. She met her future husband Roland Penrose (Alexander Skarsgård) at a party with friends Solange (Marion Cotillard), Nusch (Noémie Merlant) and assorted artistic types.

She returned to England with Roland and found a job at Vogue Magazine. She had worked as a model and photographer before. The editor at Vogue, Audrey Withers (Andrea Riseborough), knew and wanted her.

For a while she photographed the Blitz and what was happening in England. Roland’s friend Davy Scherman (Andy Samberg) joined them in London. Davy worked for Time/Life as a photographer. When he was sent to Europe, Lee wanted to follow.

Nobody wanted to let a woman in a combat zone. She fought her way in, traveled with Davy, and began taking photos for Vogue. She was there at the liberation of Paris. After the end of the war she visited concentration camps in Germany. She even visited Hitler’s apartment and took a bath in his bathtub, which Davy photographed.

None of the characters are well fleshed out in the film. The photographs tell the story of where the people were and what they saw. The photographs are the story. Many of the original photos that were recreated in the film are shown in the credits. Director Ellen Kuras understood the power of the visuals she had available and used them in direct and meaningful ways to convey the message.

The WWII photos show Nazis as genocidal murderers. When American politicians and billionaires speak with admiration of Nazi and Fascist leaders, this is the world their words enshrine. Millions of people Hitler didn’t like because they were “the enemy within” were murdered, starved, gassed, shot. Babies, mothers, grandmothers – all enemies of the state.

There’s a decent bio of Lee Miller at Wikipedia. Her son Antony is doing his best to keep her legacy alive with his book and a website of her work as both a fashion photographer and war correspondent. Antony Penrose and Kate Winslet worked together on a book of Lee Miller Photographs (affiliate link). The main character in the recent Civil War film was named after Lee Miller, an homage to the great photographer.

The film took a long time to get made. Now that it’s finally here, it has been in theaters and can now be rented on Prime Video. I truly wish it had been available just a bit sooner so it could be streamed as part of a subscription without an extra rental fee. I think people need to see this film now.