When the Wind Blows.

Had the pleasure of watching When the Wind Blows for the first time the other night. Well I say pleasure, but this animated movie warning of the terrible impact that a nuclear war would have upon an ordinary family was about as bleak as you can get.

When the Wind Blows follows the lives of Jim and Hilda Bloggs, a retired couple living in rural Sussex. They are living during a period of heightened tension in the cold war conflict, and Jim becomes obsessed with gathering information from the various civil defense pamphlets on what to do in the event of a nuclear war. The fact that both he and his wife grew up during the second world war leaves them completely mystified at the notion of a nuclear bomb, believing that life would continue as normal afterwards, just as it had after the blitz.

Jim spends much of the movie haplessly carrying out various precautions included in the defense pamphlets, often becoming confused at the different suggestions posted in different leaflets. His wife goes along with it, and his grown up son, who is never seen, finds it a bit of a joke. Then one sunny day, while listening to Radio Four, the dreaded three minute warning is given. Jim and Hilda take refuge under a shelter he has recently build using the doors of his house as the bombs drop.

The Blogs survive and incorrectly reason that the worst is over. In fact its only just beginning. The bombs have resulted in fallout, and soon both Jim and Hilda are suffering from radiation sickness. The film ends on a bleak note.

Many believe that it was bleak, realistic anti nuke movies like When the Wind Blows, Threads and The Day After that prevented a nuclear war. Ronald Reagan famously said that he had watched The Day After when he was President and it made such an impact on him that he felt he had to mediate with the Soviet Union and end the Cold War.