User Reviews

It is hard for me to write a positive review of this movie.

This is not a reflection of the quality of the animation; the beautiful hand-drawn characters and backgrounds were truly wonderful. Nor is this a disparaging comment on the performance of the actors, for they were brilliant. The writing, directing, score, etc...all are of extremely high quality.

The reason it is hard for me to speak well of the film is because of the enormous emotional impact it will have on you. I saw WTWB in my freshman year History of Animation class with Howard Beckerman, with little more warning for what I was about to experience than, "It's a tough little film".

I was an absolute wreck. I have not been so emotionally affected by a movie since.

Thought-provoking, stirring, and genuinely moving. It's hard to write favorably about something that had such a devastating effect on me. And yet, as you see, I have.

There is a ton of movies about nuclear war that are actually haunting. Barefoot Gen, for example. Some of these war movies are actually really frightening and I had nightmares from them. When it comes to British production, Threads comes to mind.

This movie is very different and not in a good way. The elderly couple talks and talks and talks and the only horror I have experienced is the fright that they just won't ever stop. Really. Seriously. After one hour of uninterrupted chatter I just wished the movie would end already.

The movie plays strongly at the 'good ol' England" instrument but it is downright silly. The nice elderly gentleman tries to comply with information from the government leaflets even though they are obviously stupid. The elderly woman just behaves as a housewife and cares not a bit about the world or about anyone else. Both of them pretend nothing serious at all is actually happening.

First and foremost: As a generation that has experienced 1945 and bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki they should know better. There was never ending flow of civil defense trainings and information at that era. Everyone was informed way way better about what to do in the case of nuclear attack. The approach of the old folks to the situation is not just silly, it is simply retarded. Both of them should have been in the nursing home already.

Second: There is not a sign of any emotional reaction from these silly folks. It might be because of some British sort of parody, but really: Everyone in such situation experiences horrible stress. Take a look at the "The Day After" - everyone is shaken into the core and on the brink of nervous breakup. For these retarded folks it is just some form of inconvenience. They are cleaning the house as if they just had experienced some sort of wild house party. Do they care about their folks in London? Do they care at all about their neighbors, about their friends? No, let's have a cup of tea, dear! Do you want some ketchup with your sausage, dear?

They are not humans. They are some sort of constantly mumbling self centered and almost completely ignorant aliens. This movie should NOT be shown to the children as a warning from the horrors of the nuclear war. They would be bored into the death as after visit of a nursing home. Grandpa Simpson had a couple of both more thrilling and more horrible stories about the war! Watch the Barefoot Gen, watch the Threads, watch The Day After and then compare it with this movie. You may discover the high average evaluation of this movie is just as silly as the elderly couple.

This has to be one of the most stunning films I've ever seen.

Although it was ages ago that I saw it, this is one of those rare films that stay with you for years.

A very chilling story of World War III, done in such a way that you can't help love the characters. Based on the UK Government's woefully inadequate how to survive a nuclear war leaflets from back in the 1980s. Such wonderful ideas such as building a fallout shelter from your house doors, or painting your house white to reflect the blast come to life in possibly one of the most disturbing films ever.

The two little old age pensioners take you right through from before to after the war. And I can still see my sister and mom crying towards the end. Radiation sickness is brought to the screen in such a way you just wish that the old dears could end it all now. Yet they endure and the story of their love for each other shines through as the one hope in a World gone mad.

If you've never seen this film, I would suggest you try and find a copy. Forget the Terminator (and others of that ilk) with their flashy bangs and multi million dollar budgets, this film really brings the horror of a possible Nuclear War home.

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

In 1986 The Cold War was still raging and the good, innocent people of the world were still fearful that one day the superpowers might lose patience and annihilate each other with nuclear weapons. Author and illustrator Raymond Briggs (of The Snowman and Fungus The Bogeyman fame) released a picture-book entitled When The Wind Blows that tells of an elderly couple who attempt to prepare for, and survive in the aftermath of, a nuclear strike. Here, the book is adapted for the screen by Briggs himself. It is not a story that lends itself naturally to the medium of film, for several reasons. Firstly, the entire story involves just the two elderly characters, so there are inevitably tedious patches. Secondly, the film doesn't really have a clear audience in mind – the animated approach suggests a juvenile audience, but the story is so bleak and talky that one begins to feel that maybe adults are the intended audience. Thirdly, the book was very much a "message book", put together in such a way that it allowed adults to educate their children about the horrific possibility of nuclear war. But when a "message book" becomes a "message film", it is almost inevitable that there will be a certain level of heavy-handedness…. and, true to form, When The Wind Blows certainly has its heavy-handed moments.

James Bloggs (voice of John Mills), an elderly man who lives in the English countryside with his wife Hilda (voice of Peggy Ashcroft), is worried about an international crisis that threatens to escalate in full-scale war. He listens daily to his radio to find out if there is any sign of the situation easing, or if the world is soon to be at war. A veteran of World War 2, James believes that people should prepare for conflict with the kind of stiff-upper-lipped spirit that saw the British triumph back in 1945. He uses an emergency leaflet, and a book from the local library, to prepare himself and his wife for the possibility of a nuclear holocaust. They build their fall-out shelter, they paint their windows white, they put aside emergency supplies. But, tragically, the aging couple have no idea what a nuclear strike may actually involve. Hilda innocently declares that she will leave a note for the milkman to leave 28 bottles of milk for the 14 day fall-out period. James absurdly expects the bomb blast to be filmed and later shown on TV and newspaper covers. Stuck in their old-fashioned ways of thinking, the elders do not understand that after the nuclear blast the world as they know it will never be the same again. As expected, a nuclear strike does occur…. afterwards the poor couple sit and wait for help that isn't coming, keeping up remarkable optimism and spirit even though the world beyond their shattered window is grey and bleak and empty. Without realising it, they may be the last people left alive in the world - yet they cling on to the hope that their son may have survived, that the local shop will be open for business as usual, that the emergency services will come to their aid as soon as they can….

When The Wind Blows is an incredibly sad film, both in the way it shows these two old people misunderstanding the dire predicament they're in, and its devastating ending in which, diseased and dying, they still don't realise that the world of old has gone forever. David Bowie's title song is very moving, and the animation captures the deteriorating condition of the doomed couple in subtle detail. Occasionally, the dialogue is a little wearisome, especially when James talks about "the government guidelines" and "being prepared" and the effects of "the bomb" for the umpteenth time. But on other occasions the dialogue is very good, like in the scene where James keeps trying his household appliances after the explosion – his cooker, his radio, his television, his telephone – and in bewilderment keeps uttering "nothing, all dead" over and over. He thinks he's talking about the appliances, but unsuspectingly and tragically he is actually describing the condition of the entire planet. When The Wind Blows is bleak stuff, but certainly thought-provoking.

I've watched "When the wind blows" probably about 3 times in my life. And with recent events I thought I'd give it another watch.

As I'm originally from the West Country of England - the setting strikes a chord with me instantly. I remember rolling fields and little cottages where I grew up, filled with grandparents who lived through the Blitz. The two main characters reminded me of who could be any neighbour of mine when I was young.

I won't go into too much detail, but we see their journey unravel on what would happen if they were loosely prepared for a nuke to go off to their general deterioration with radiation sickness.

Powerful and hard to stomach in some instances.

I was really excited to see this movie and couldn't have been more disappointed. While I'm sure this was intended to be some left-wing commie hippie anti-war movie, playing on the emotions of idiots, it's just an hour and a half of stupid. I must say that the animation is actually quite unique. They mix animation and live action in a very strange way and it really looks good. Unfortunately the story itself is total crap. The official description on this site calls the elderly couple "naive". I assume that was written by the same PC idiot who wrote this movie. They are far beyond naive, they are downright stupid. When the old man says there is going to be a missile strike, the old woman complains about commies going on strike and says they should all be locked up. Less than 5 minutes later she is talking about how much she loves Stalin. She asks her husband who runs Russia now and he says Marx has something to do with it. After the bomb drops they ramp up the stupidity but it's not funny anymore as you watch these two elderly morons die. It's a real shame that such great animation was wasted on such a terrible story. I give 3 stars for the animation, the story is a -10.