When The Wind Blows
(1986)
Director: Jimmy J.
Murakami
Cast: Peggy Ashcroft, John Mills
Settled in one of those quiet countryside pockets of
England where even in this day and age your nearest neighbor can be a
mile or two away, you would think that married couple Jim and Hilda,
who are starting to get on in years, would be facing a retirement
filled with years of quiet and
uneventful
days. But life can take on unexpected turns; one day Jim comes home
from town with some unexpected news after reading the newspapers at the
library. After exchanging a few words with his wife about the day and
his boring life, he hesitatingly informs his wife that things won't be
the same for much longer - "It looks like there is going to be a war,
dear."
So begins When The Wind Blows, an adaptation of British
cartoonist Raymond Briggs' acclaimed comic novel. For those who may not
immediately recognize the name, he has written and illustrated such
popular works for children as The Snowman, Father Christmas
(and its vacation-themed sequel), as well as Fungus The Bogeyman.
Though he has also written books more geared to adults, not just the
one that gave birth to this movie, including
Gentleman Jim, and the Unlucky Wally series.
Briggs was instantly a favorite of mine when I was a child, not just
because his drawing style and use of glowing color captured my eye, but
of his storytelling style. When I read his children's books years ago,
I never thought he was talking down to his audience, which I
appreciated. Yet at the same time, I found that he wrote his
adult-oriented books in a style that made them accessible to children,
should they choose to read them. When I read When The Wind Blows
in elementary school, I understood it all - the attacks at war and
government, the grisly humor, and that nuclear war would mean the end
of us all.
It's a powerful book, and to properly adapt something like this for the
silver screen needs not only great responsibility, but great care. The
producers probably had some kind of idea like this, because Briggs
himself wrote the screenplay. Though it was inevitable that a few
scenes would get slightly trimmed in the transition, as well as some
new material being introduced, virtually all of the book is preserved,
with the characters doing and saying almost all the same things as they
did in the book. Like in the book, Hilda is naive to modern-day
warfare, commenting, "Well, if the worst comes to worse, we'll just
have to roll up our sleeves, tighten our belts, and put on our tin hits
'til it's VE day again." Jim's equally nostalgic look towards his
childhood during WW II also remains, and his grasp of nuclear
technology is still illustrated by his comment, "You get terrific heat
in these bombs."
The rest of the movie is equally faithful to the book, subsequently
depicting Jim building a shelter to the specifications to the
government leaflets that he places his faith in,
while alternating between arguing
with Hilda and trying to explain the world political situation and why
he must mess up her house with activities like painting the windows
white. It isn't long until a nuclear attack commences, and while taking
refuge in their shelter, one missile from the attack lands several
miles from their home. Despite the subsequent damage to their home, as
well as communication from the outside world being totally cut off,
both Jim and Hilda wait patiently for outsiders to come, and for the
system to start repairing itself - not knowing what inevitably is to
happen after a nuclear war.
Though I felt the movie was fairly well done overall, this kind of
cluelessness that Jim and Hilda display towards their predicament was a
factor that made my enjoyment of the movie less than it could have
been. That's not to say that there isn't any of this in the book; even
as a child, I was a little annoyed that these two people could
have no real idea what was happening to them. Though this feeling of
mine increased when seeing the movie. Not because I was seeing it from
a now adult perspective, but I was seeing the story played out in a new
format. Even though their undying optimism was unbelievable in the
book, I could almost believe it, because I was reading it in a comic
format - it was obviously not real.
Yes, the movie is done with animation, but even then the characters
become more "real" in front of our eyes than in a comic format. I could
accept their behavior for the first half of the movie, with their not
knowing
just how devastating a nuclear bomb can be, and even their feelings
after the bomb drops that soon everything would be back to normal. But
when later in the movie when you see these same characters assume that
their bleeding gums, splotches on their skin, and their hair falling
out is a consequence of getting old... well, it is exasperating when
seeing them make these assumptions while they are "alive" in front of
you; you want to grab and shake some sense into them. I simply could
not believe that anyone could be so dense as to not realize from these
signs that something was seriously wrong with them.
Though I am glad for the most part that Briggs stuck to his book, I
wish that he had a better idea of the fact that when translating
another medium into a feature film format, some things cannot work
exactly as they did in the other medium. This brings up another fault I
found in the translation, though Briggs is not to blame for this one.
Maybe I have some bias because I have read the book, but I didn't find
the dialogue for the most part to be delivered in a manner that sounded
natural enough. No, I don't mean that Ashcroft and Mills deliver their
lines badly - their voices sounded right for these characters. What I
mean is that director Murakami edits all their takes together so that
these characters often speak in a rat-tat-tat manner. These are older
and slower characters, so hearing them speak for long periods without
stopping to think, exhale a sigh, or to take a break doesn't sound
right. You can imagine this natural breaks while reading the book, they
needed to be injected in when this dialogue is spoken out loud.
Despite all of this, the characters of Jim and Hilda -
the heart of the movie - remain very likable. Even though they may not
be very well informed about the modern world, they are the kind of
quiet and friendly people you would like to have as next-door neighbors.
They are two people who have much affection for each other. Even though
we see them have a lot of disagreements, there is never a sense that
they feel any malice towards the other; they accept each other despite
the differences. Scenes of them directly giving affection to the other
are not often seen, but we still sense their love for each other, such
as the touching scene when they come across one last blackcurrant
candy. And though their misunderstanding of things does eventually
become hard to swallow, early on in the movie it gives them a sweet
charm as well as some humor - some of it black. When the couple goes
outside after the bomb drops and Hilda comments that the burning smell
she senses is "Like roast meat," Jim responds with, "I expect people
are having their Sunday dinners early this week due to the unexpected
circumstances."
Another element that remains preserved from the transition from book to
film
is its political agenda. Not just its criticism of nuclear armament,
but for the fact that any government could suggest to its citizens that
survival and normalcy can be achieved after a nuclear strike. This is
primarily shown with the government-issued survival leaflets that Jim
places his faith in, though even he seems puzzled by the contradictions
he finds, and that the inane activities the leaflets suggest don't seem
to work when he tries them himself. In fact, I would say that the movie
actually manages to improve on the book in depicting a post-holocaust
world. For one thing, the movie shows a lot more of the destruction
than the book, depicting the house as more trashed and discolored, as
well as painting the countryside an unbelievably grim color during the
scene when Jim and Hilda venture outside. The most effective sequence
showing the destruction is when the bomb actually drops, depicted in a
sepia-toned sequence showing the destruction of cars, trains, houses,
and even animals.
The animation doesn't have the budget or the slick Disney style, but it
manages to be effective all the same. It uses a technique seldom used
since the Max Fleischer days - building small table-top sets, and
placing the animation cels between the set and the camera. The results
give the movie a
very pleasing kind of 3D quality, one that doesn't distract the viewer
from the action; each set has been painstakingly modeled to fit with
Briggs' artistic style (which, of course, is used with the hand-drawn
characters.) The only criticisms I have with the actual animation and
its presentation is that occasionally it doesn't look that bright
enough. Yes, we are talking about nuclear-scorched scenery, but even
then some details seem to be unnecessarily dark and murky. (Some of
this may come from the quality of the print used for the video -
there's signs that a fresh print wasn't used.) As well, the animation
with Jim's head looks bland and hard for the eye to focus on for the
most part, though Briggs' conception of Jim's head was really designed
for the printed page, not animation.
When The Wind Blows is a very fine
movie, though it's a movie that really needed to go that extra mile. As
a message movie dealing with such serious subjects, it really should
have had a more emotional kick to it (though it does start to approach
this during the final sequence), and left you with some kind of
unshakable feeling that what you saw was too awful to happen to anyone.
As a matter of fact, there is another animated war movie that, though
not about nuclear war, delivers many of the same messages as this
movie. It's called Grave Of The Fireflies, and it's not
only one of the best animated movies ever made, it delivers its
messages in a much more effective manner. Its impact is just what When
The Wind Blows should have had.
Check for availability on Amazon (VHS)
Check for availability of soundtrack on Amazon (CD)
Check Amazon for availability of the original Raymond Briggs comic novel
See also: Barefoot Gen, No Blade Of Grass, Tycus
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