When the Wind Blows (1986 film)

When the Wind Blows is a 1986 British animated disaster film directed by Jimmy Murakami based on Raymond Briggs' comic book of the same name. The film stars the voices of John Mills and Peggy Ashcroft as the two main characters and was scored by Roger Waters. The film accounts a rural English couple's attempt to survive a nearby nuclear attack and maintain a sense of normality in the subsequent fallout.[3]

When the Wind Blows
Directed byJimmy T. Murakami[1]
Produced byJohn Coates[1]
Written byRaymond Briggs
Based onWhen the Wind Blows
by Raymond Briggs
Starring
Music byRoger Waters
Edited byJohn Cary
Production
company
Distributed byRecorded Releasing Company
Release date
  • 24 October 1986 (1986-10-24) (United Kingdom)
  • 25 July 1987 (1987-07-25) (Japan)
  • 11 March 1988 (1988-03-11) (United States)
Running time
80 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Box office$5,274[2]

The film was Briggs' second collaboration with TVC, after their efforts with a special based on another work of his, The Snowman, in 1982. It was distributed by Recorded Releasing in the UK, and by Kings Road Entertainment in the United States. A subsequent graphic novel by Briggs, Ethel and Ernest (1998), makes it clear that Briggs based the protagonist couple in When the Wind Blows on his own parents.

When the Wind Blows is a hybrid of traditional and stop-motion animation. The characters of Jim and Hilda Bloggs are hand-drawn, but their home and most of the objects in it are real objects that seldom move but are animated with stop motion when they do.

The soundtrack album features music by David Bowie (who performed the title song), Roger Waters, Genesis, Squeeze, Hugh Cornwell and Paul Hardcastle.

Plot

Jim and Hilda Bloggs are an elderly couple living in a tidy isolated cottage in rural Sussex, in southeast England. Jim frequently travels to the local town to read newspapers and keep abreast of the deteriorating international situation regarding the Soviet–Afghan War; while frequently misunderstanding some specifics of the conflict, he is fully aware of the growing risk of an all-out nuclear war with the Soviet Union. Jim is horrified at a radio news report stating that a war may be only three days away, and sets about preparing for the worst as instructed by his government-issued Protect and Survive pamphlets. As Hilda continues her daily routine, and their son Ron (living elsewhere), who is implied to have fallen into fatalistic despair, dismisses such preparations as pointless (referencing the song "We'll All Go Together When We Go" by Tom Lehrer), Jim builds a lean-to shelter out of several doors inside their home (which he consistently calls the "inner core or refuge" per the pamphlets) and prepares a stock of supplies. He also follows through seemingly strange instructions such as painting his windows with white paint and readying sacks to lie down in when a nuclear strike hits. Despite Jim's concerns, he and Hilda are confident they can survive the war, as they did World War II in their childhoods, and that a Soviet defeat will ensue.

Hearing a warning on the radio of an imminent ICBM strike, Jim rushes himself and Hilda into their shelter, just escaping injury as distant shock waves batter their home. They remain in the shelter for a couple of nights, and when they emerge, they find all their utilities, services and communications have been destroyed by the nuclear blast. Over the following days, they gradually grow sick from exposure to the radioactive fallout, resulting in radiation poisoning. Ron and his wife Beryl are not heard from again, though their deaths are heavily implied.

In spite of all this, Jim and Hilda stoically attempt to carry on, preparing tea and dinners on a camping stove, noting numerous errands they will have to run once the crisis passes, and trying to renew their evaporated water stock with (contaminated) rainwater. Jim keeps faith that a rescue operation will be launched to help civilians. Apparently oblivious to the dead animals, destroyed buildings and scorched, dead vegetation outside their cottage (aside from their own garden), they initially remain optimistic. However, as they take in the debris of their home, prolonged isolation, lack of food and water, growing radiation sickness, and confusion about the events that have taken place, the couple begins to fall into a state of despair.

After a few days, the Bloggs are practically bedridden, and Hilda is despondent when her hair begins to fall out, after vomiting, developing painful sores and lesions and experiencing bleeding gums. Either in denial, unaware of the extent of the nuclear holocaust, unable to comprehend it, or trying to comfort Hilda, Jim is still confident that emergency services will eventually arrive, but they never do. The film ends with the dying Jim and Hilda getting into paper sacks, crawling back into the shelter, and praying. Jim begins with the Lord's Prayer, but, forgetting the lines, switches to "The Charge of the Light Brigade", whose militaristic and ironic undertones distress the dying Hilda, who weakly asks him not to continue. Finally, Jim's voice mumbles away into silence as he finishes the line, "...rode the Six Hundred..."

Outside the shelter, the smoke and ash-filled sky begins to clear, revealing the sun rising through the gloom. At the very end of the credits, a Morse code signal taps out "MAD", which stands for mutual assured destruction.

Cast

Reception

When the Wind Blows received positive reviews, currently having an 83% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 6 reviews.[4] Critic Barry Lappin called it "Absolutely brilliant.... It was very subtly done but the message more than gets through well". He explained that the scenes are "more than touching" and encouraged people to watch it to the very end.

Soundtrack

Originally, David Bowie was slated to contribute several songs to the soundtrack for the film, but decided to pull out so he could focus on his upcoming album Never Let Me Down, and instead only submitted the title track. Roger Waters was brought in to complete the project instead.[5]

When the Wind Blows
Soundtrack album by
Various artists, Roger Waters and The Bleeding Heart Band
Released16 May 1986
RecordedWinter 1985
Length45:36
LabelVirgin Records
ProducerRoger Waters
David Bowie
Hugh Cornwell
Peter Hammond
Paul Hardcastle
Squeeze
Roger Waters chronology
The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking
(1984)		 When the Wind Blows
(1986)		 Radio K.A.O.S.
(1987)
Singles from When the Wind Blows
  1. "When the Wind Blows"
    Released: 27 October 1986
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[6]

Track listing

All tracks written by Roger Waters and performed by Waters and The Bleeding Heart Band except where noted. On some versions of the album, the Roger Waters tracks are all put into one 24:26 song. The lyrics to the closing song, "Folded Flags", feature a reference to the song "Hey Joe" in the lines "Hey Joe, where you goin' with that gun in your hand?" and "Hey Joe, where you goin' with that dogma in your head?"[7]

  1. "When the Wind Blows" (lyrics: Bowie; music: Bowie, Erdal Kızılçay) – 3:35
  2. "Facts And Figures" (Hugh Cornwell) – 4:19
    • Performed by Hugh Cornwell
  3. "The Brazilian" (Tony Banks, Phil Collins, Mike Rutherford) – 4:51
  4. "What Have They Done?" (Chris Difford, Glenn Tilbrook) – 3:39
  5. "The Shuffle" (Paul Hardcastle) – 4:16
    • Performed by Paul Hardcastle
  6. "The Russian Missile" – 0:10
  7. "Towers of Faith" – 7:00
  8. "Hilda's Dream" – 1:36
  9. "The American Bomber" – 0:07
  10. "The Anderson Shelter" – 1:13
  11. "The British Submarine" – 0:14
  12. "The Attack" – 2:53
  13. "The Fall Out" – 2:04
  14. "Hilda's Hair" – 4:20
  15. "Folded Flags" – 4:51

Personnel

The Bleeding Heart Band

Home media releases

The film was released on VHS in the United Kingdom by CBS/Fox Video after its theatrical run, and later on laserdisc. After a short theatrical run in the United States in one theatre and grossing $5,274 at the box office in 1988, it was released on VHS by International Video Entertainment and on laserdisc by Image Entertainment. It was released on DVD in 2005 by Channel 4, with 0 region coding: the official UK DVD is still PAL format. The film was re-released on DVD in September 2010, again by Channel 4, it is formatted in NTSC and All region coding. In the United States it was released on Blu-ray on 11 November 2014 by Twilight Time in a limited edition of 3000,[8] and in the United Kingdom, a dual-format release containing both the DVD and Blu-ray version was released on 22 January 2018 by the BFI. Severin Films released another Blu-ray of the movie in the United States through their Severin Kids label on 21 April 2020.[9]

See also

References
  1. "When the Wind Blows". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on 13 July 2012. Retrieved 19 December 2013.
  2. "When the Wind Blows (1988) - Box Office Mojo". 22 February 2014. Archived from the original on 22 February 2014.
  3. Lenburg, Jeff (2009). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons (3rd ed.). New York: Checkmark Books. p. 241. ISBN 978-0-8160-6600-1.
  4. When the Wind Blows, retrieved 15 January 2019
  5. O'Leary, Chris (2019). Ashes to Ashes The Songs of David Bowie 1976-2016. Repeater Books. ISBN 9781912248308.
  6. "Allmusic review".
  7. "When The Wind Blows lyrics". Roger Waters International Fan Club. Retrieved 17 February 2010.
  8. "When the Wind Blows Blu-ray Release Date November 11, 2014" – via www.blu-ray.com.
  9. When the Wind Blows Blu-ray, retrieved 9 November 2019
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