When the Wind Blows (1986)

So, yeah, with the anniversaries of Hiroshima and Nagasaki having just passed, with everyone going to see Oppenheimer, and with war in Europe and increasing tensions with China and Russia and North Korea out there doing its thing, and with the United States still possessing more than 5,000 nuclear weapons…

Ranked 40th in a TimeOut list of the 100 best animated films done in 2014:

A sick joke on paper, this devastating domestic drama today feels like one of the more honest works of the anti-nuke movement. It’s a complete and utter downer, making a larger point subtly through the employment of animation itself: Such an adorably hand-drawn universe is too precious to last in a world of mutually assured destruction. We’re all living in a cartoon if we actually believe survival is possible when the radiation headaches mount and your hair starts failing out in tufts. (Heartbreakingly, the husband assures his wife that women don’t go bald—a “scientific fact.”) Big-name pop stars lent their music to the cause, including Roger Waters, Squeeze and David Bowie, who crooned the soulful, undanceable title track. If you haven’t seen this one, that’s totally understandable; it makes The Day After look like a gentle summer shower.—Joshua Rothkopf

For more…

• When the Wind Blows (movie) – Amazon
• Stream on Tubi (with ads, and owned by Fox, so you would be making a contribution to that company’s – and Rupert Murdoch’s – profits)
• Where else to watch
• When the Wind Blows – Wikipedia
• When the Wind Blows (comic book/graphic novel) – Amazon

Filed under: Movies, animation, nuclear war, war