When the Wind Blows

*“Decisions made by the powers that be will get to us in the end.” When the Wind Blows* is a very haunting film, a film about denial (and perhaps overconfidence) in the age of catastrophe. One feels a level of dread as they watch our sole subjects - the elderly couple of Jim and his wife Hilda, based on original story writer Raymond Briggs’s own parents - attempt to keep some level of normalcy after a nuclear bomb goes off in England. It is a film where you already know how things will end. The film is a hard watch, to say the very least, but it is a visually interesting film. Mixing early CGI, traditional 2-D animation, live action footage and stop-motion animation effectively creates imagery one could call visually unique and yet it feels akin to a film like Yellow Submarine in the way it presents some of its elements; whereas Yellow Submarine is a film of visuals to evoke wonder, however, When the Wind Blows is a film of visuals to evoke dread and fear. How appropriate that is, then, that this film could evoke such worries to an audience who probably faced this concern every day when this came out in 1986. What feelings the moviegoers must have had seeing this, knowing that this could easily be their parents. It’s hard to see this lovely couple - their marriage, their day-to-day-lives, their whole world interrupted by the bomb - deteriorating as they hold out hope for someone to come and get them in the aftermath, in the fallout. I can’t help but stress as I watch Jim and Hilda step out into the fallout, collecting the radioactive rainwater to drink not knowing any better beyond what they had learned as much younger folk in the Second World War. And yet I also can’t help but notice that it is Jim trying to keep the normalcy as much as he humanly can. Is he in denial himself, or is he trying to be reassuring for Hilda, trying to hold up hope for her with what little he knows and his humor while he deep down knows the truth? And the bigger question - does Hilda know what is going on deep down? After all, she is the one who helps Jim become resigned to their fates. Another question is, of course, how prepared were the couple. The film, focusing on its themes of anti-war, is suggested as critical of the government-produced Protect and Survive, and it is indeed these pamphlets that drive our protagonists to their fates. Perhaps one of the hardest thoughts of the film, while not quite on the level of what you see this couple go through, is the dedication at the very end; the children born during this production and their future, of whom this film is dedicated to at the very end of the credits. What a thought that this scenario was entirely possible, and one that - as original story creator Raymond Briggs also depicted in the original graphic novel - was one that is strikingly accurate. Musically the film is a companion to the themes soundtrack composer Roger Waters (of Pink Floyd fame) was exploring with two of his prior works - The Wall, of course, and The Final Cut - themes of war and fear and uncertainty. He is joined by artists such as Squeeze, Phil Collins-led Genesis, and (in the title track) David Bowie. Bowie was supposed to do the whole film, but pulled out as he was busy working on an upcoming album, and I think that his replacement of Roger Waters was the absolute right choice for the general tone of the story; Bowie’s title track feels starkly cherry in comparison, and while this may sound like a complaint it is not. Rather, it is great to pull you, the viewer, into that false sense of security. What an insult, then, that it gets physical releases by kids’ brands due to its status as an animated film. Nuclear war is a hell on earth, not fare for your children because of what medium it is. This is animation, perhaps, at one of its finest storytelling moments, and it is - like I said early on in this review - absolutely haunting.