Rent When the Wind Blows (1986)

Interesting Adult Animation - When the Wind Blows review by GI

Whilst this very moving film is about nuclear war it has in many ways a contemporary resonance with the coronavirus pandemic. When The Wind Blows seeks to show that government 'advice' and instruction is often ill-thought out, designed as a placatory placebo or just downright useless. This is a serious British animation film with some dark humour centred around the, now, infamous Protect & Survive booklet issued to the public to prepare them for the possibility of a nuclear attack. Peggy Ashcroft and John Mills provide the voices for the two characters Hilda and Jim. A retired couple who have moved to the country. They are a typical naive English pair who believe what they read in the papers and tend to see authority as there for their ultimate good. With warnings of East/West tensions Jim follows the booklets instructions and prepares their humble house ready for an air attack and the fallout. He tries to laugh off the booklets contradictions such as removing the doors to build a shelter (which he does) but also to close all the doors to limit the spread of fire! It's here that you can observe the relevance today in the strangely contradictory advice given around the pandemic restrictions. As a film this is a tender and touching story of a very identifiable married pair who view the world and the past through rose tinted spectacles with their fond memories of the blitz and of a time of community coming together as they see it in the Second World War. Hilda is more concerned with Jim using her best cushions for the shelter than the implications of the attack. Ultimately when the attack comes Jim and Hilda are ill prepared for survival because of the lack of information and to that end the film is touched with sadness. This is emphasised by the style of animation and story from Raymond Briggs (who also wrote The Snowman) which combined together gives the film a quaintness and very English quality. Interesting to know that when the film was first released the government of the day was determined the film shouldn't be shown in schools. It was and today it's definitely a film that children should see.

A quiet, devastating sigh at the end of the world - When the Wind Blows review by griggs

What makes When the Wind Blows so quietly devastating isn’t just the subject matter—it’s the fact that it comes from Raymond Briggs, better known for cosy, child-friendly tales like The Snowman. That contrast is hard to get your head around. It taps into nuclear dread—that paralysing fear of annihilation we try to keep buried. But here, it’s filtered through twee domesticity and blind faith in government advice. Back then, the couple’s trust might’ve seemed touching. Now, it feels like satire. Naive. And yet, that’s the point. Watching them faff around with paper bags and doors is almost funny—until it isn’t. The emotional gut punch is how slowly things unravel. No big explosions, just quiet, creeping horror. It’s heartbreaking, surreal, and still painfully relevant. A grim reminder that good intentions and stiff-upper-lip routines won’t save you when the worst actually happens.

Unlike Threads, which traumatised an entire generation (my class who were forced to watch it at school included) with its brutal, documentary-style depiction of nuclear fallout, When the Wind Blows takes a gentler—though no less harrowing—approach. Where Threads is all raw panic and societal collapse, When the Wind Blows narrows the lens, focusing on one elderly couple fumbling through civil defence leaflets with heartbreaking optimism. Threads shows you the breakdown of everything. When the Wind Blows shows you what it feels like to keep calm and carry on while the world ends quietly around you. One is a howl, the other a sigh—but both leave you shaken to the core.

A snapshot of its time - When the Wind Blows review by LC

I expect this film had much more impact on release, when people were living under the daily threat of nuclear holocaust. Watching it for the first time now, I'm not entirely sure how well it holds up. It's nicely made, and obviously well-meaning, but the actual storyline is so thin it's barely there, with this clearly being more of a political warning of the time than a rounded drama.