When the Wind Blows (1986 film)
| When the Wind Blows | |
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| Directed by | Jimmy Murakami |
| Produced by | John Coates |
| Written by | Raymond Briggs (also graphic novel) |
| Starring | |
| Music by | Roger Waters |
| Distributed by |
United Kingdom: Recorded Releasing United States: Kings Road Entertainment Japan: Nippon Herald Films/At Entertainment |
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Release date
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United Kingdom: 25 July 1987 |
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Running time
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80 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Box office | $5,274 |
| When the Wind Blows | ||||
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| Soundtrack album by Various artists, Roger Waters and The Bleeding Heart Band | ||||
| Released | 16 May 1986 | |||
| Recorded | Winter 1985 | |||
| Length | 45:36 | |||
| Label | Virgin Records | |||
| Producer |
Roger Waters David Bowie Hugh Cornwell Peter Hammond Paul Hardcastle Squeeze |
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| Roger Waters chronology | ||||
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| Singles from When the Wind Blows | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   |
United Kingdom:
24 October 1986 Portugal:
17 February 1987
(Fantasporto Film Festival)
United States:
11 March 1988
When the Wind Blows is a 1986 British animated disaster film directed by Jimmy Murakami based on Raymond Briggs' graphic novel of the same name. The film stars the voices of John Mills and Peggy Ashcroft as the two main characters.
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 David Bowie (who performed the title song), Roger Waters, Genesis, Squeeze, Hugh Cornwell and Paul Hardcastle.
James and Hilda Bloggs are a retired couple living in a tidy isolated cottage in rural Sussex in southeast England. James frequently travels to London to read the newspapers and keep abreast of the deteriorating international situation regarding the Soviet-Afghan War; while frequently misunderstanding some specifics, he is fully aware of the growing risk of a nuclear war with the Soviet Union. James is horrified at a radio news report stating that a war may be only three days away, and sets about preparing for the worst as instructed by his government-issued Protect and Survive pamphlets. As Hilda continues her daily routine, and their son Ron, who is implied to have fallen into fatalistic despair, dismisses such preparations as pointless (referencing the song "We'll All Go Together When We Go" by Tom Lehrer), James builds a lean-to shelter inside their home (which he consistently calls the "inner core or refuge" per the pamphlets) and prepares a stock of supplies. He also follows through seemingly strange instructions such as painting his windows with white paint and readying sacks to lie down in when a nuclear strike hits. Despite James' concerns, he and Hilda are confident they can survive the war, as they did World War II in their childhoods, and that a Soviet defeat will ensue.
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Wikipedia