When the Wind Blows (1986)

Just what I expected

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

Yeah, it was really disturbing! And what made it so was how realistic it seemed. The elderly couple was so amazingly acted that it could have been any couple from the real world. Animated in a very unique way by adding cartoon-looking characters to photographs of their living room and kitchen (I think). By adding live-action passages of WWII and well-known personas from that time and having the couple always talking about their experiences from there just made the threat of the nuclear holocaust seem even more omnipresent and frightening. Especially after the half-hour mark the film gradually gets harder to sit through and I can't imagine how it was in the cinema back in 1986 during the Cold War tensions. It's not sad as films like "Grave of the Fireflies", but more disturbing and depressing. Yes, depressing is the right way to describe it, but disturbing is the way they cope with the situation. Watching two main characters slowly dying in the ruins of their home in a desolation after a nuclear bomb has struck is for a PG audience??? At the very least PG-13!!! You're in for a hell-ride of a depressive watch, but that's what "When the Wind Blow" was supposed to do with its unique visual style and the most disturbing and dragged out character death in cinematic history. Thoughtprovoking and realistic brilliance indeed!

I remember seeing this movie on YouTube. I love the use of live action and 2D animation put together and the story was depressing to watch. During the Cold War, the Soviet Union were having a fight with the US and the whole of NATO and that includes England, the country that these two live in. When WWIII started, we see them dying from radiation sickness through the third act of the movie. What the movie was portraying this two couple saying that they'll survive a war if one is coming, as they did during the second world war, showing determination and confidence that they'll survive a nuclear war, which sadly they didn't in the end, it didn't show but you can tell that they were dead. The music sends a depressing chill down your spine and the story makes you feel sorry for the characters. However, despite it being animated, it is not suitable for young kids.

SPOILERS May be included in my review:It takes a truly gifted film and TV maker to mix humour and light hearted dialogue with utter heartbreak. These talented geniuses reel in their audience and lull them into a sense of light hearted expectation and then sucker punch a hole straight through their soul leaving them feeling like they've hit by an emotional freight train. Paul Whitehouse could do it the 'The Fast Show' (Rowley Birkin QC comes to mind) - as could Sir David Jason's character Derek Trotter in 'Only Fools and Horses' The finale of Ben Elton and Richard Curtis' 'Blackadder Goes Fourth' where they go over-the-top to be shot down instantly in the fabulous last scene ever to be shot in the Blackadder series. You know that you have been laughing real hard the whole way through the show and you know you absolutely should not be laughing now.As I say, a tough thing to do successfully. This animated masterpiece does the same. 'PinHead' from the movie Hellraiser claimed he was going to 'tear you soul apart' - well scriptwriter Raymond Briggs, director Jimmy Murakami, voice actors John Mills and Peggy Ashcroft, Soundtrack contributors Pink Floyd - David Bowie - Genesis - Paul Hardcastle - Squeeze and the hundreds and hundreds of animators do just that..... Who doesn't recognise their Aunts and Uncles, Mothers and Fathers, Grandmothers and Grandfathers in the two elderly main protagonists Jim and Hilda. With their British stiff upper lip, their almost romantic notion of war dating from their experiences in WWII - 'we'll teach the Hun like we did in 42' as an example of their utterly misguided hopes that it will all be OK. It's not OK. It's as far away from OK as it possibly could be. Jim and Hilda are expecting a few bombs and so hide under the makeshift shelter they have built. They built the shelter because the government told them to. The government knew it was pointless to do so but they lied about the survivability of the 300-400 megaton attack the United Kingdom would suffer and Jim and Hilda believed them. Touchingly, during the build up as the mood darkens slowly - relentlessly - Jim calls his son in London to make sure he is prepared for the attack and that his 'inner core or refuge' is built and they are ready to get into it, only to find his son on the end of the telephone in a state of utter mental overload/breakdown. Jim assumes his son is drunk and even though we only hear the conversation from Jim's side it is obvious to everyone *except* Jim that his son has simply lost his mind. Jim almost thinks it's funny, the viewer knows it is anything but.... As the pace quickens and we find our lovable (and we do love them) Jim and Hilda in their inner core or refuge, we witness an amazing animated piece depicting the end of the world as Jim and Hilda know it. The dust settles and the second act is an abject lesson in horrific despair, with an almost clinical breakdown describing and showing stages of the breakdown of the human body and the breakdown of Jim and Hilda's everything. A breakdown of the breakdown of everything ... 20 minutes ago the film was showing us a dear old couple arguing like only those who've been married for 50 years can argue. Good natured banter with Jim pointing out to Hilda that very large thermonuclear weapons are on their way and now is perhaps not the time to be bringing the clothes in off the washing line and finishing cleaning the pots and pans. 20 minutes ago Jim was reassuring Hilda that everything will be just fine once the bombs had gone off and that they can get the mess cleared up when the all clear signal is broadcast.20 minutes ago Hilda was not passing blood in the toilet. 25 minutes ago Jim wasn't vomiting blood. 30 minutes ago Jim and Hilda had a full head of hair instead of the clumps that are falling out now. 35 minutes ago Hilda wasn't breaking out in awful blistering and hemorrhaging from every orifice. At this point the viewers mind is utterly shattered with the complete hopelessness of their situation. As I watched them trying to survive the unsurvivable I found myself hoping against all hope that this lovely pair of old timers would live, somehow survive.....long enough to be killed by the leukaemia and bone cancers that are a near 100% guarantee after their level of exposure I guess... I didn't want them to die, nobody wants them to die, except maybe the crazy bastards with the launch codes tucked away under a mountain somewhere safe and air-conditioned. Hollywood tries to condition movie watchers to an often wishy-washy happy ending.... 'Oh no hold it there sir - there'll be none of that nonsense in this film .... for Christ's sake this is not Hollywood dear viewer, they've just been exposed to so many roentgens that their internal organs are turning into liquid sh|te'Talk about mixed emotions. Just f****** hardcore. Glen Lewis

Loved every second of this movie it's an eye catching for real from beginning to end. The continuous dialogue that goes between the couple is so real and simple. It has a rich political content that's absolutely harmless but touching. Worth watching actually shouldn't miss it if you can. It may seem as a plain animation but it's the exact opposite, it's not plain at all. There are only two characters throughout the whole movie, but they're just more than enough. The way they chat to one another, argue, love, exchange opinion, and so on is amazingly expressive. Not forgetting the fact that it's been made in the 80's so I guess at the time picture perfect wasn't the goal and that really made it special as well.