When the Wind Blows (film)
Encyclopedia
|journal=Animage
|volume=110 |issue= |pages=8–20 |accessdate= 2007-12-01 |language=Japanese }}
| music = Roger Waters
David Bowie
| runtime = 80 minutes
| country =
| language = English
}}
When the Wind Blows is an animated film originally released in the United Kingdom in 1986. The film is based on Raymond Briggs
' graphic novel of the same name. The film was directed by Jimmy Murakami
and it stars the voices of John Mills
and Peggy Ashcroft
.
The film was Briggs' second collaboration with TVC, after their efforts with a special based on another work of his, The Snowman
, in 1982. It was distributed by Recorded Releasing in the UK, and by Kings Road Entertainment in the United States. A subsequent graphic novel by Briggs, Ethel and Ernest
(1998), makes it clear that Briggs based the protagonist couple in When the Wind Blows on his own parents.
When the Wind Blows is a hybrid of drawn animation and stop-motion animation. The characters of Jim and Hilda Bloggs are drawn, but their home and most of the objects in it are real objects that seldom move but are animated with stop motion when they do.
The soundtrack album features music by Roger Waters
and David Bowie
(who performed the title song), Genesis
, Squeeze and Paul Hardcastle
.
from the viewpoint of a retired couple, Jim and Hilda Bloggs. The Bloggs live in rural Sussex
and are confused regarding the nature and seriousness of their situation. This confusion is sometimes used to generate gentle comedy as well as darker elements. As the film progresses, things become steadily more hopeless as the couple suffer from the effects of radiation sickness
. The film ends on an extremely bleak note, with them praying in their fallout shelter as death approaches.
At the very end of the closing credits, a morse code
can be heard, spelling "MAD
".
" in the lines "Hey Joe, where you goin' with that gun in your hand?" and "Hey Joe, where you goin' with that dogma in your head?"
in the United Kingdom
by CBS/Fox Video
after its theatrical run, and later on laserdisc
. After a short theatrical run in the United States
in one theatre and grossing $5,274 at the box office in 1988, it was released on VHS by IVE
and on laserdisc by Image Entertainment
. It was released on DVD in 2005 by Channel 4
, with 0 region coding: the official UK DVD is still PAL
format. The film was recently re-released on DVD
in September 2010, again by Channel 4, and is available on Amazon.com
, it is formatted in NTSC
and All region coding.
Animage
is a Japanese anime and entertainment magazine which Tokuma Shoten began publishing in July 1978. Hayao Miyazaki's internationally renowned manga, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, was serialized in Animage from 1982 through 1994...
|volume=110 |issue= |pages=8–20 |accessdate= 2007-12-01 |language=Japanese }}
| music = Roger Waters
Roger Waters
George Roger Waters is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. He was a founding member of the progressive rock band Pink Floyd, serving as bassist and co-lead vocalist. Following the departure of bandmate Syd Barrett in 1968, Waters became the band's lyricist, principal songwriter...
David Bowie
David Bowie
David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...
| runtime = 80 minutes
| country =
| language = English
}}
When the Wind Blows is an animated film originally released in the United Kingdom in 1986. The film is based on Raymond Briggs
Raymond Briggs
Raymond Redvers Briggs is an English illustrator, cartoonist, graphic novelist, and author who has achieved critical and popular success among adults and children...
' graphic novel of the same name. The film was directed by Jimmy Murakami
Jimmy Murakami
Teruaki "Jimmy" Murakami, , is a Japanese American animator and director with a long career working in numerous countries. Among his best-known works are the animated adaptations of the Raymond Briggs books When the Wind Blows and The Snowman...
and it stars the voices of John Mills
John Mills
Sir John Mills CBE , born Lewis Ernest Watts Mills, was an English actor who made more than 120 films in a career spanning seven decades.-Life and career:...
and Peggy Ashcroft
Peggy Ashcroft
Dame Peggy Ashcroft, DBE was an English actress.-Early years:Born as Edith Margaret Emily Ashcroft in Croydon, Ashcroft attended the Woodford School, Croydon and the Central School of Speech and Drama...
.
The film was Briggs' second collaboration with TVC, after their efforts with a special based on another work of his, The Snowman
The Snowman
The Snowman is a children's book by English author Raymond Briggs, published in 1978. In 1982, this book was turned into a 26-minute animated movie by Dianne Jackson for the fledgling Channel 4. It was first shown on Channel 4 late on Christmas Eve in 1982 and was an immediate success. The film was...
, in 1982. It was distributed by Recorded Releasing in the UK, and by Kings Road Entertainment in the United States. A subsequent graphic novel by Briggs, Ethel and Ernest
Ethel and Ernest
Ethel and Ernest is a graphic novel by English author and illustrator Raymond Briggs. It tells the story of the lives of Briggs' parents from their first meeting in 1928 to their deaths in 1971.-Story:...
(1998), makes it clear that Briggs based the protagonist couple in When the Wind Blows on his own parents.
When the Wind Blows is a hybrid of drawn animation and stop-motion animation. The characters of Jim and Hilda Bloggs are drawn, but their home and most of the objects in it are real objects that seldom move but are animated with stop motion when they do.
The soundtrack album features music by Roger Waters
Roger Waters
George Roger Waters is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. He was a founding member of the progressive rock band Pink Floyd, serving as bassist and co-lead vocalist. Following the departure of bandmate Syd Barrett in 1968, Waters became the band's lyricist, principal songwriter...
and David Bowie
David Bowie
David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...
(who performed the title song), Genesis
Genesis (band)
Genesis are an English rock band that formed in 1967. The band currently comprises the longest-tenured members Tony Banks , Mike Rutherford and Phil Collins . Past members Peter Gabriel , Steve Hackett and Anthony Phillips , also played major roles in the band in its early years...
, Squeeze and Paul Hardcastle
Paul Hardcastle
Paul Hardcastle is an English composer and musician, specialising in the synthesizer.-Discography:In the early 1980s, Hardcastle played the keyboards on several singles on the Oval record label by the dance music groups Direct Drive and First Light, before going solo.He achieved some acclaim for...
.
Plot summary
When the Wind Blows depicts a nuclear attack on the UK by the Soviet UnionSoviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
from the viewpoint of a retired couple, Jim and Hilda Bloggs. The Bloggs live in rural Sussex
Sussex
Sussex , from the Old English Sūþsēaxe , is an historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is bounded on the north by Surrey, east by Kent, south by the English Channel, and west by Hampshire, and is divided for local government into West...
and are confused regarding the nature and seriousness of their situation. This confusion is sometimes used to generate gentle comedy as well as darker elements. As the film progresses, things become steadily more hopeless as the couple suffer from the effects of radiation sickness
Radiation Sickness
Radiation Sickness is a VHS by the thrash metal band Nuclear Assault. The video is a recording of a concert at the Hammersmith Odeon, London in 1988. It was released in 1991...
. The film ends on an extremely bleak note, with them praying in their fallout shelter as death approaches.
At the very end of the closing credits, a morse code
Morse code
Morse code is a method of transmitting textual information as a series of on-off tones, lights, or clicks that can be directly understood by a skilled listener or observer without special equipment...
can be heard, spelling "MAD
Mutual assured destruction
Mutual Assured Destruction, or mutually assured destruction , is a doctrine of military strategy and national security policy in which a full-scale use of high-yield weapons of mass destruction by two opposing sides would effectively result in the complete, utter and irrevocable annihilation of...
".
Track listing
All tracks written by Waters and performed by Waters and The Bleeding Heart Band except where noted. On some versions of the album the Roger Waters tracks are all put into one 24:26 minute song. The lyrics to the closing song, "Folded Flags", feature a reference to the song "Hey JoeHey Joe
"Hey Joe" is an American popular song from the 1960s that has become a rock standard and as such, has been performed in a multitude of musical styles by hundreds of different artists since it was first written. "Hey Joe" tells the story of a man who is on the run and planning to head to Mexico...
" in the lines "Hey Joe, where you goin' with that gun in your hand?" and "Hey Joe, where you goin' with that dogma in your head?"
- "When the Wind BlowsWhen the Wind Blows (song)"When the Wind Blows" is a song from the soundtrack of the film of the same name, performed by David Bowie.It marked the second contribution from Bowie to a film based on a Raymond Briggs book – he contributed a filmed introduction to The Snowman in 1982...
" (Bowie, Erdal KizilcayErdal KizilcayErdal Kizilcay is a multi-instrumental musician of Turkish birth who has worked with, among others, David Bowie. He lives in Aegerten, Switzerland.-With David Bowie:*Never Let Me Down...
) – 3:35- Performed by David Bowie
- "Facts And Figures" (Edgar Sampson) – 4:19
- Performed by Hugh Cornwell
- "The BrazilianThe Brazilian"The Brazilian" is an instrumental piece by the English band Genesis that concludes their 1986 album Invisible Touch. The song features experimental sounds and effects....
" (Tony BanksTony Banks (musician)This article is about the musician. For other people named Tony Banks, see Tony BanksAnthony George "Tony" Banks is a British composer, and multi-instrumentalist, who performs as a keyboardist and a guitarist...
, Phil CollinsPhil CollinsPhilip David Charles "Phil" Collins, LVO is an English singer-songwriter, drummer, pianist and actor best known as a drummer and vocalist for British progressive rock group Genesis and as a solo artist....
, Mike RutherfordMike RutherfordMichael John Cleote Crawford Rutherford is an English musician. He is a founding member of Genesis, initially as a bassist and backup vocalist. In later incarnations of Genesis, he assumed the role of lead guitarist. He is one of only two constant members in Genesis . He also fronts Mike + The...
) – 4:51- Performed by Genesis
- "What Have They Done?" (Chris DiffordChris DiffordChris Difford is a singer, musician, songwriter, and record producer....
, Glenn TilbrookGlenn TilbrookGlenn Martin Tilbrook is the lead singer and guitarist of the English band Squeeze, a band formed in the mid 1970s who broke through in the new wave era at the decade's end. He generally wrote the melody for Squeeze, while his writing partner, Chris Difford, wrote the lyrics...
) – 3:39- Performed by Squeeze
- "The Shuffle" (Hardcastle) – 4:16
- Performed by Paul Hardcastle
- "The Russian Missile" – 0:10
- "Towers of Faith" – 7:00
- "Hilda's Dream" – 1:36
- "The American Bomber" – 0:07
- "The Anderson Shelter" – 1:13
- "The British Submarine" – 0:14
- "The Attack" – 2:53
- "The Fall Out" – 2:04
- "Hilda's Hair" – 4:20
- "Folded Flags" – 4:51
The Bleeding Heart Band
- Roger WatersRoger WatersGeorge Roger Waters is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. He was a founding member of the progressive rock band Pink Floyd, serving as bassist and co-lead vocalist. Following the departure of bandmate Syd Barrett in 1968, Waters became the band's lyricist, principal songwriter...
– bass guitarBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
, acoustic guitarAcoustic guitarAn acoustic guitar is a guitar that uses only an acoustic sound board. The air in this cavity resonates with the vibrational modes of the string and at low frequencies, which depend on the size of the box, the chamber acts like a Helmholtz resonator, increasing or decreasing the volume of the sound...
, vocalsSingingSinging is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
on "Towers of Faith" and "Folded Flags" - Jay Stapley – guitarGuitarThe guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
- John GordonJohn Gordon-Noblemen:*John Gordon, 11th Earl of Sutherland , Earl of Sutherland*John Gordon, 13th Earl of Sutherland , Earl of Sutherland*John Gordon, 1st Viscount of Melgum , father of Scottish courtier Henrietta Gordon...
– bass guitar - Matt IrvingMatt IrvingMatt Irving is a musician perhaps best known as the bass guitar player for Manfred Mann's Earth Band between 1981 and 1986. He featured on the albums Somewhere in Afrika and Budapest Live...
– keyboardsKeyboard instrumentA keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...
, organOrgan (music)The organ , is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard operated either with the hands or with the feet. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument in the Western musical tradition, dating from the time of Ctesibius of Alexandria who is credited with... - Nick Glennie-SmithNick Glennie-SmithNick Glennie-Smith is a film composer whose most prominent work is a collaboration with Hans Zimmer on the score to the 1996 action film The Rock as well as work on the 1993 drama Point of No Return...
– pianoPianoThe piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
, organ - John Linwood – LinnLinnDrumThe LinnDrum is a drum machine manufactured by Linn Electronics. It was released in 1982 as a successor to the Linn LM-1. The LinnDrum has 15 drum sounds sampled from real drums, a sequencer for programming rhythm patterns and five trigger inputs....
programmingComputer programmingComputer programming is the process of designing, writing, testing, debugging, and maintaining the source code of computer programs. This source code is written in one or more programming languages. The purpose of programming is to create a program that performs specific operations or exhibits a... - Freddie Krc – drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
, percussionPercussion instrumentA percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement or when it is shaken, rubbed, scraped, or otherwise acted upon in a way that sets the object into vibration... - Mel CollinsMel CollinsMel Collins is a British saxophonist and flautist and session musician.He has worked in a wide variety of contexts ranging from R&B and blues rock to jazz, but is perhaps known for his work in progressive rock, as with King Crimson, Camel and the Alan Parsons Project.-Career:Collins has worked...
– saxophoneSaxophoneThe saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846... - Clare TorryClare TorryClare Torry is a British singer who famously performed the wordless vocals on Pink Floyd's "The Great Gig in the Sky" on the 1973 album The Dark Side of the Moon.-Education:...
– backing vocalsBacking vocalistA backing vocalist or backing singer is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists...
on "Towers of Faith" - Paul CarrackPaul CarrackPaul Carrack is an English singer, songwriter and musician. Carrack has been a member of several bands including Ace, Squeeze, Mike + The Mechanics, and Roxy Music, been a session and touring musician for several others including Nick Lowe, and has enjoyed success as a solo artist as well...
– keyboards and vocals on "Folded Flags"
Home media releases
The film was released on VHSVHS
The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
by CBS/Fox Video
CBS/Fox Video
CBS/Fox Video was a home video company formed and established in 1982, as a merger between 20th Century Fox Video, formerly Magnetic Video Corporation, and CBS Video Enterprises....
after its theatrical run, and later on laserdisc
Laserdisc
LaserDisc was a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium. Initially licensed, sold, and marketed as MCA DiscoVision in North America in 1978, the technology was previously referred to interally as Optical Videodisc System, Reflective Optical Videodisc, Laser Optical...
. After a short theatrical run in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
in one theatre and grossing $5,274 at the box office in 1988, it was released on VHS by IVE
Artisan Entertainment
Artisan Entertainment Inc. was a privately held independent American movie studio until it was purchased by a Canadian studio, Lionsgate, in 2003. At the time of its acquisition, Artisan had a library of thousands of films developed through acquisition, original production, and production and...
and on laserdisc by Image Entertainment
Image Entertainment
Image Entertainment, Inc. is an independent licensee, producer and distributor of home entertainment programming and film & television productions in North America, with approximately 3,000 exclusive DVD titles and approximately 250 exclusive CD titles in domestic release, and approximately 450...
. It was released on DVD in 2005 by Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
, with 0 region coding: the official UK DVD is still PAL
PAL
PAL, short for Phase Alternating Line, is an analogue television colour encoding system used in broadcast television systems in many countries. Other common analogue television systems are NTSC and SECAM. This page primarily discusses the PAL colour encoding system...
format. The film was recently re-released on DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
in September 2010, again by Channel 4, and is available on Amazon.com
Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. is a multinational electronic commerce company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world's largest online retailer. Amazon has separate websites for the following countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and...
, it is formatted in NTSC
NTSC
NTSC, named for the National Television System Committee, is the analog television system that is used in most of North America, most of South America , Burma, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines, and some Pacific island nations and territories .Most countries using the NTSC standard, as...
and All region coding.
External links
- Toonhound pages on original graphic novel and animated film