Steve Reviews: When the Wind Blows

Today we're taking a look at the 1980s film When the Wind Blows. A dark but also beatiful animation which focuses around an elderly couple in Britain who survive a nuclear missile strike launched from Russia.

[TheMugHoarder]

One thing I should add, at the end of the credits you hear morse code. If you decipher the code it spells MAD. MAD is Mutual Assured Destruction which is a term the military use saying that in the event of a nuclear exchange that there will be no survivors on either side. This for me at least makes the ending so much sadder. Not only is the couple dying to wait for help to come, its the sheer fact that there is no help anymore.

[beefusdoesstuff]

I always felt the "come back you stupid bitch" line was so damn powerful. He's angry because he's afraid, and under pressure from the inbound nuclear strike. It's out of character and that's the point.

[kiddfaith]

The part where Hilda smells a scent like roasted meat on the wind, with James accounting it to people having their Sunday roasts early, while the image zooms over burned, destroyed homes, and a ruined teddy bear...that gives me the chills every time.

[itsalexbruh]

The fact that him calling her a stupid bitch was out of character was entirely the point of that scene. He was in a panic, wanted to save his wife who wasn't really paying much attention, and because that language is out of character for him he knew that it would get her attention

[kenhoughton]

People make fun of Hilda's remark about her cake, but I think it just really drives home her ordinariness, and how unable she is to grasp the enormity of the situation - but she can see where it affects her personally, and I find that really rather touching.

[ivorymantis]

My dad does his best never to curse ever.
If he knew a nuclear warhead was going to be detonating nearby he would be cussing a storm at literally everyone. I don't see it as too far out of character.

[keona]

"Hilda get in the shelter."
"Darling I'm not getting-"
*"GET IN THE SHELTER!"*

[Geekylori]

I think one of the most heartbreaking moments of the movie was when Hilda says “maybe we would have been better off in the cellar” and you realize that they had another option besides that stupid shelter.

[Cherry-bqoh]

I like this because it portrays a more realistic view of a nuclear war. Less fighting supermutants, more dying slowly from radiation poisoning In the ruins of your house

[TheGutterMonkey]

She wasn't worried that the blast was going to burn her cake lol. She was worried because she left the oven on when her husband made her hide, and that the cake would burn while she was away. I don't think it was meant to be dark humor, either. That line repeating was just emphasizing how far removed her mind and priorities were from the tragic severity of what was actually happening outside. It was the last moments of her normal life being annihilated, and she wasn't realizing it.

[njf]

James and Hilda: The milk has not been delivered yet!
The milk man: *has been literally obliterated from the nuclear blast*

[SgtRocko]

I was 22 when this came out, and saw it in a PACKED cinema. At the time, people WERE very concerned - some terrified - that nuclear war was about to happen. During the showing, you could feel the tension build. A friend with me whispered "they're like my grandparents, I don't think I want to see this". There was dead silence during the bombing scene, and murmurs of "oh no" as the couple grow sicker and sicker. Most telling, there was dead silence when the movie ended, and the crowd stayed absolutely silent as we exited, everyone clearly lost in thought. It was a powerful film.

[YowLife]

Ironically the cake wasn't burned...
...
...
...it was eradicated.

[diegobareno]

Watching James and Hilda suffer radiation poisoning made me feel sick, as if I was also exposed to the radiation.

[Hektols]

When the Wind Blows, The Plague Dogs, Watership Down, Animal Farm, Animals of the Farthing Wood...

No wonder why British are ranked among the most depressed people in the Western World if they watched these films when they were children.

[exodous]

The most haunting part for me was early on the leaflet says get in potato sacks and they have no idea why. In the last scene she suggests they get in them before going to bed because she knows what they're suggested for, the dead. The government didn't expect anyone to live, body cleanup would be easier if people were in bags. So in the end she knew they wouldn't wake up. It is pretty haunting.

[Oceanrex]

In the story The Snowman by Raymond Briggs, James was the name of the young boy, so the elderly man named James might be the boy but older.

[AlliYAFF]

Disagree about the "bitch" thing. It was actually probably important to shock her into compliance. That sounds awful, but if they are a couple that tends to have a bit of back and forth before taking action, and he had great confidence that such a time delay would cost them dearly, it would then be appropriate to communicate in such a way that stuns someone, such that they do not argue back.

[natdawson]

I think they're reactions post-bomb are completely in character as, like you mentioned, they remember the Blitz. They're doing what they did back then; tidying up the broken bits and carrying on with life. It's sad, and sometimes humorous, but overall shows how unprepared they are for this awful 'modern warfare'

[BX_YT]

At the end of the credits, there is a morse code sequence that spells out "MAD" which means Mutually Assured Destruction. This is implying that the world ended due to the nuclear war and it honestly gave me chills.