Steve Reviews: When the Wind Blows
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- Опубліковано 30 лис 2018
- Today we're taking a look at the 1980s film When the Wind Blows. A dark but also beatiful animation which focuses around an elderly couple in Britain who survive a nuclear missile strike launched from Russia.
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I always felt the "come back you stupid bitch" line was so damn powerful. He's angry because he's afraid, and under pressure from the inbound nuclear strike. It's out of character and that's the point.
I will make you hate me for no reason
You don’t know your favorite letter
@@kirkhonor09x15 checkmate mine is Z
@@bigboynow7936 omg me too
Men of that generation didn't and don't swear in front of their wives generally. My dad is a generation after them I'd say and he never does. So you're spot on there. Its interesting, as an child growing up under the shadow of the Cold War to see how younger people who didn't look back on that period, if they do at all of course. Its strange to think back to that time as it was an ever-present threat but if you ever actually properly THOUGHT about it at the time nothing would have got done. You just got on with it and hoped for the best.
"Hilda get in the shelter."
"Darling I'm not getting-"
*"GET IN THE SHELTER!"*
*B I T C H*
COME BACK YOU STUPID BITCH AND GET IN THE S H E L T E R
GET ON THE TRIKE!!!!
That actually would have been better in character than what we got.
THERE IS NO MEME
GET IN THE SHELTER
The fact that him calling her a stupid bitch was out of character was entirely the point of that scene. He was in a panic, wanted to save his wife who wasn't really paying much attention, and because that language is out of character for him he knew that it would get her attention
I thought the same thing.
You're not thinking straight when you're scared and act out of character
James and Hilda die slowly from radiation ☢️ sickness… Blimy. Wasn’t the 1980 s cheery
My grandparents are eerily similar to both characters, it's almost as if Hilda and Jim were based on them. When I heard that line I burst out with uncontrollable laughter because it was so realistic it caught me off guard! I have seen my grandad get frustrated at my grandmother in a very similar way when faced with danger, but not quite to the point of swearing. I know for a fact that if a nuclear explosion was imminent, those are the exact words he would use.
I laughed so hard when I heard it.
8:04
I think one of the most heartbreaking moments of the movie was when Hilda says “maybe we would have been better off in the cellar” and you realize that they had another option besides that stupid shelter.
Crushing.
Not that it would have been that much better in the long run. Shelters in shallow earth, like cellars, don't do much to stop incoming gamma radiation. Unless the place was layered with lead or several feet of concrete, it only would have prolonged the inevitable at best.
@@misselizabethplays8070 nuclear fallout is carried by dust and ash. You wouldn't need a bunch of lead you'd just need as much distance and shelter from the outside as possible to prevent coming in contact with the particles.
@@misselizabethplays8070They drank rain filled with radiation and went outside to the fallout. They would have probably survived in the cellar if they stayed put
@@watdadogdoin3408 But the point is they wouldn't have. They just didn't know any better and didn't have any idea how horrible their situation is. They think it's weird the paper boy and milkman haven't come by in the literal apocalypse. The last scene where they're dying of radiation poisoning, James is still convinced the emergency services will come by and they'll be fine. They were dead from the start, sadly
The part where Hilda smells a scent like roasted meat on the wind, with James accounting it to people having their Sunday roasts early, while the image zooms over burned, destroyed homes, and a ruined teddy bear...that gives me the chills every time.
It's quite Sickening too
William Pulfer-melville The scene where they smell roast meat's one of the funniest jokes in the film.
Chris Henniker
Well, if you find the fact that it’s because adults and children were cooked alive funny...
@@chrishenniker5944 You are a sick fuck
Michelle Fernandez not really.
People make fun of Hilda's remark about her cake, but I think it just really drives home her ordinariness, and how unable she is to grasp the enormity of the situation - but she can see where it affects her personally, and I find that really rather touching.
So what you are saying is rip cake you will be missed
Not to mention the powerful symbolism of the destruction of the simple and sweet.
It has something to do with shock. Like the men on Normandy beach who were just casually searching for their missing arms just after they've been blown off. I personally think it's really sad.
I think it's a brilliant, and extremely haunting line. It reminds me of The Day After when the wife is frantically making the bed when she should be heading down to the shelter. It's like people can't grasp the enormity of what's happening and instead are focused on small personal details.
Not to mention it just sort of encapsulates a natural human response to events outside of their control. There’s nothing they can do to stop the nuke from falling, so they do the thing they can do: finish making the bed, fretting about their cake in the oven, etc.
A few years ago I was caught up in a big earth quake (nothing devastating, but enough that it could potentially do some damage). My first response was not to duck into a corner or something and take cover - it was to grab the open bag of rice that was sitting on my book shelf so it wouldn’t fall over and spill (this shelf was also perched precariously on a dresser, and could have fallen and knocked me out had I grabbed the rice at the wrong time). It was a situation I could not control, so I automatically acted in a way I could control by grabbing the bag of small objects that I would have to clean up if it was allowed to fall.
I was 22 when this came out, and saw it in a PACKED cinema. At the time, people WERE very concerned - some terrified - that nuclear war was about to happen. During the showing, you could feel the tension build. A friend with me whispered "they're like my grandparents, I don't think I want to see this". There was dead silence during the bombing scene, and murmurs of "oh no" as the couple grow sicker and sicker. Most telling, there was dead silence when the movie ended, and the crowd stayed absolutely silent as we exited, everyone clearly lost in thought. It was a powerful film.
I ,for one, think the Russian-Ukraine conflict brought on a second Cold War. Unlike others before him, Putin can do worse if pushed; and he'll definitely use worldwide condemnation as an excuse for that. 😨😨 I don't think appeasement is going to help things this time...
@@MrJamaigar What makes me afraid is the sense of safety and complacency that is now felt, the "it will never happen", the "they would never do that", and the like.
A man who visits a cliffs edge for the first time will be wary by nature, but a man who lives on one has this fear as a neighbor and must temper himself to be wary of it, lest he grow fond of its presence.
However our situation is worse still. We are not one man, but a group of many men tied at the hip, and should one plunge down the cliff he will lead us all to join him.
The most haunting part for me was early on the leaflet says get in potato sacks and they have no idea why. In the last scene she suggests they get in them before going to bed because she knows what they're suggested for, the dead. The government didn't expect anyone to live, body cleanup would be easier if people were in bags. So in the end she knew they wouldn't wake up. It is pretty haunting.
If the government is still intact.
The potato sacks were for if someone in your house died you would put them in a potato sack with identification in another room so they could be recovered later
@@TDOPBthey were saying for the dead people not the government, re read it
@@broskibro7099 He said that the reason for the bags was to make body cleanup easier. I said "If the government is still intact" because he says it as though it's guaranteed order will be maintained enough throughout and post a nuclear war to actually HAVE organized corpse disposal.
James and Hilda: The milk has not been delivered yet!
The milk man: *has been literally obliterated from the nuclear blast*
Nick Frutos, but they aren’t aware of that, they believe that almost nothing really happened.
Hes literally a shadow on the pavement.
The ultimate Karen
Nuka Insanity That's called dramatic irony.
The milkman be like
👁👄👁
One thing I should add, at the end of the credits you hear morse code. If you decipher the code it spells MAD. MAD is Mutual Assured Destruction which is a term the military use saying that in the event of a nuclear exchange that there will be no survivors on either side. This for me at least makes the ending so much sadder. Not only is the couple dying to wait for help to come, its the sheer fact that there is no help anymore.
Ouch.... That *is* depressing..
That's why nothing has happend yet MAD is an amazing deterrence to conflict. I would argue the nuke threat saved far far more lives than if they did not exist.
I'm starting to see a pattern as I watch these reviews on movies/shows I've never seen before. In the comments I read things that always relates to what I'm learning in my classes now. My International Relations class literally just talked about the Cold War and the MAD Morse code.
Selerie Sticks and this is why the two Super Powers didn't do anything in the end. George Kennan and others mentioned this. Nuclear Deterrence. Weapons of Mass destruction are useless and each side would lose rather than "win" a war.
Damm, that's a hard blow.
At the end of the credits, there is a morse code sequence that spells out "MAD" which means Mutually Assured Destruction. This is implying that the world ended due to the nuclear war and it honestly gave me chills.
This,this comment is gold
I think the telling moment was at the very end, when Hilda suggested that they get back into the brown paper sacks and return to the "shelter" (those lean-to doors)...she must have realized, on a subconscious level at least, that they were about to die and therefore they should prepare their bodies for burial (not that anyone would've buried them). The paper sacks represented burial shrouds in this case.
So funny enough term phrase. By the way, in the original guide books that the UK put out. Apparently during this time. They mentioned that if you found dead bodies to use things like newspaper or paper bags to cover them into quarantine them as because they're filled with rott and radiation. So you're right in a way that they are burial shrouds, but that's literally what they're intended for in reality.
To Add No Imagine Going Into A Destroyed Home And Just Seeing Bags. And Because Bombs Would Be Being Dropped Still. Theres No Names. Its Just Two Dead Body’s With No Name. Kind Of A Terrifying Thought
Very true and it was disturbing but it actually it gets worse. What James is referring to constantly with the potato sack was a part in the manuals that were handed out. The government instructed people to wrap dead bodies in sheets, plastic or paper (basically whatever that was available), with ID's attached. So the end of the film and the comic was all about how these sweet elders died following the government and because of the government (the manuals were notoriously unhelpful with unclear or even conflicting instructions).
Ironically the cake wasn't burned...
...
...
...it was eradicated.
Nuclear cake
Hmmmmm 👌 ✋
Rip cake
The cake is a lie
*but eradicated doesn't really make sense in this context*
My dad does his best never to curse ever.
If he knew a nuclear warhead was going to be detonating nearby he would be cussing a storm at literally everyone. I don't see it as too far out of character.
You stupid bitch!
It's out of character because the character saying it is clearly ignorant and doesn't understand how serious it is
my dad called me a f////t when i didnt clean my room
@@raymonddeactivated7118 *calling CPS*
@@raymonddeactivated7118 Your comment is 900% funnier when you interpret it as be said by the actual Animal Crossing Character your name and icon correlate with.
7:03 These aren’t just life action military vehicles, that’s a nuclear warhead convoy. The beginning of the movie serves as a stark reminder that despite this being an animated movie, it still deals with very real themes that affect our real lives, not just the lives of these animated characters.
I agree but they should have not added the rock music to it the rock music in my opinion took the seriousness away from it
@@RussianEmpire-sq4qi, Listen to the lyrics it definitely fits the film.
@@RussianEmpire-sq4qi Pair it with the soulfulness of David Bowie’s voice and it’s foreshadowing on how much you’ll cry. Makes you really want peace.
@@paladinboyd1228 The lyrics don't just fit the film, the song was *made* for the film. Literally.
@@Tftmt Yeah thats my point the lycris fit and it was made for the film.
When those two were reflecting on how they survived the war, it dawned on me that they DID NOT know the true horror of what was to come. There would no battles or soldiers only pure, total destruction.
The soldiers, tanks, planes would have been hit by tactical nukes almost immediately. Once the warheads started landing on cities, all the soldiers are gone already
She wasn't worried that the blast was going to burn her cake lol. She was worried because she left the oven on when her husband made her hide, and that the cake would burn while she was away. I don't think it was meant to be dark humor, either. That line repeating was just emphasizing how far removed her mind and priorities were from the tragic severity of what was actually happening outside. It was the last moments of her normal life being annihilated, and she wasn't realizing it.
You'd be suprised how many people think like that.
@@3rasvok24 lol right? looking at you people thinking about parties during COVID
Exactly right. Spot on, mate.
It to the audience is still dark humor
Disaster eradicates culture. We end up plummeting into chaos as we put survival and neglect everything else. And yet, some live in denial, not realizing the danger.
To a degree 2020 is a grim reminder of when we forget about culture, as everyone is concerned about COVID 19. Yes COVID 19 is a danger, but so is cultural decay.
When the Wind Blows, The Plague Dogs, Watership Down, Animal Farm, Animals of the Farthing Wood...
No wonder why British are ranked among the most depressed people in the Western World if they watched these films when they were children.
I don’t know why Animal Farm even is a kids movie. It’s literally George Orwell
We can thank Richard Adams for plague dogs and watership down.
Yeah, welcome to the shithole that's england. The only fun part is watching younger people get scared by the depressing AF movies of the 70s
Wtf animals of the fartin....oh,nvm
That's why it's so cloudy there
I really hate seeing elderly people sad, never mind sad elderly people slowly dying of radiation poisoning. Let’s just say this video haunted me for the next week.
2:13 Okay, obviously if your close enough to ground zero then your dead no matter what. But if your far enough away your main concerns for surviving are protecting yourself from the intense heat of the nuclear fireball, radiation, and radioactive fallout. James accomplishes the first thing by painting his windows, which will reflect some of the heat away from the house (as long as the blast is far enough away for the windows not to be shattered.)
Building a small shelter also helps with radiation somewhat, the idea being that in order to protect yourself from radiation you need to put as much matter as possible in between you and the source of the radiation in order to reduce your exposure to it. Use anything you can find, it doesn't matter what, doing this isn't meant to protect you against the full force of the blast its just mean't protect you from radiation.
Staying inside is a good way to protect yourself from radioactive fallout, but if you do need to go outside make sure to change your clothes afterward and store them somewhere safe to prevent the house from being contaminated.
I just wanted to point out that the advice from the government wasn't just mean't to stop people from panicing. It was legitimate advice to help people deal with the effects of a nuclear blast. Although it obviously wouldn't help you if you were at ground zero.
That said, an ordinary house isn't going to do much to stop incoming gamma radiation- unless the walls are lined with lead or several feet of thick concrete, that is. If you've ever been to a radiology department in a hospital, you probably know the sort of construction I'm talking about, and even THAT is mainly protection against larger particles. In Blast Radius, the only winning move is not to play.
I like this because it portrays a more realistic view of a nuclear war. Less fighting supermutants, more dying slowly from radiation poisoning In the ruins of your house
i like your analogy
I’d like to be Godzilla.
Supermutants where created by a virus tho
What are you looking at smoothskin?
What a nice comment. Not something I'd expect from a Fallout profile picture, though.
Watching James and Hilda suffer radiation poisoning made me feel sick, as if I was also exposed to the radiation.
(I hold a Geiger counter to you before watching it) ok! (I do it again after) the counter: kkkk kkkkk kkkk
Oh really how did that radiation feel?
Not very comfortable.
No different the decay of a dying corpse. Or a burning earth.
@Samuel Fontaine
Not for me... I've seen world come and go. This is nothing more than the infinite outcomes I simulated before.
Apparently, Raymond Briggs (the author of the original comic) intended the story to be a sort of dark comedy. It wasn't until the BBC did a radio play adaptation that he realised quite how tragic it was. I guess writing characters suffering is one thing, but HEARING them suffer is quite another...
Briggs' stuff is always sort of sad, though. Even his children's books end with you either sombre at best, or straight-up sobbing at worst, I've always found.
That's us Brits for you! Infallibly negative
I gotta read some of that, what are some examples of Briggs’ work?
@@C-Farsene_5 Well, his most famous is probably "The Snowman". I'm personally a fan of "Fungus the Bogeyman" and "The Tin-Pot Foreign General and the Old Iron Woman".
One of the heartbreaking aspects of the film is that, as you mention, James and Hilda tend to equate the threat of nuclear war with their experience of the Blitz in the Second World War: “it’ll be all right and, if we all pull together, we’ll get through this”. The audience knows that this is naive, but James and Hilda do not. One image that sticks out in my mind is the also heartbreaking scene once the nuclear bomb has exploded and you see livestock (specifically, sheep) in a field being tossed about like toys in the nightmarish nuclear wind.
Our physics teacher showed us the movie at the end of our school years to teach us the dangers of atomic weapons and the radioactive fallout that follows. The entire class was dead silent after that with even the strongest chads struggling to keep their tears in.
Bet the class needed the rest of the time to chill and calm down from that scarring movie
Remember the same with Threads. Some kids never got over it.
@Chaos Gaming same
If our teacher ever lets us watch this, I’m betting that almost all of the class would be crying and sobbing at the end
@The Sans chill the fuck out, man
In the story The Snowman by Raymond Briggs, James was the name of the young boy, so the elderly man named James might be the boy but older.
oh god
Would The Snowman be his dying dream then? Because if so, god that's dark.
Thats a really good theory
*cries* ;_;
🤔 Hmmm
Fun fact: a Soviet submarine near Cuba thought the cold war broke out so almost decided to torpedo an American ship patrolling the Cuban coast
One crew member on the submarine then declined the operation
That one guy
Prevented the end of the world
Hail that guy
it was Stanislov petrov, I have Petrov day saved on my calendar
He saved the world as we know it!! Phreesh to Petrov. He should have been given every award ever for saving us!
@@YungFlightRisk when is it?
Hail thqt man
As a matter of fact, dropping to the ground and covering your head very well might save you from a nuclear blast if you're far away enough from the epicentre.
Several survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs in Japan claimed the only reason they survived, but the friend standing not five metres from them wasn't, was because they were behind a wall or lower to the ground and were sheltered from the shockwave.
Afterwards you'd obviously still have to contend with radiation poisoning, but if you drop to the ground you do increase your chances of surviving the initial blast.
Disagree about the "bitch" thing. It was actually probably important to shock her into compliance. That sounds awful, but if they are a couple that tends to have a bit of back and forth before taking action, and he had great confidence that such a time delay would cost them dearly, it would then be appropriate to communicate in such a way that stuns someone, such that they do not argue back.
Exactly.
hmmm sadly i dont have alot of experience in talking with other people to notice this wich can be put to thought hmmm
Makes sense, especially if she was shrugging his worries off and to him, if she didn't listen to him, she would die. So his love for her was equal to the willingness he had to grab her attention the first way he knew how, act like a totally different person to scare her into realizing, "geeze, this must be serious."
If i ever heard that word coming out of my boyfriends mouth when the nuke drop,i would drag him to the backyard and see the nuke firework together
Kind of makes me chuckle
Caillou has really gone downhill
THAT'S WHAT I WAS GONNA SAY.
Caillou 50 years later
like it hasn't already, its gone down hill since the first ep
The son does not laugh it off pretending it will never happen, he knows it will happen and knows that James's belief in the fallout shelters are totally useless. He knows NOTHING can be done about it, that's why he's cracking up and laughing on the Phone.
I heavily disagree
@@yeetyredding7697 Heavily disagree with what?
@@soeffingwhat your opinion on the scene with the sun
@@soeffingwhat son*
Hell, the son is also singing a real song on the other end, "We will all go together when we go", by Tom Lehrer
Raymond Briggs unfortunately passed away today, may he rest in peace. 😔 What a legacy he has left though, including The Snowman, Fungus the Bogeyman, and of course When The Wind Blows.
When The Wind Blows is so powerfully done and deserves a watch more than ever. ☢️ Thank you Raymond for all the wonderful stories and beautiful illustrations.
The door shelter isn't for the shock wave, it's for the extreme directional light and falling debris
Yes, everything in the primary shockwave dies immediately, but nukes are dropped on cities, not on cottages in the country. Door shelters offer some protection from falling bits of ceiling and roof. There is some research that if you just stay the hell inside after a nuke, your life expectancy goes way up. You'll likely get cancer years later, but you already have that risk, and you might still live several decades. You have to limit exposure in the immediate aftermath, let the dust settle. Stay in shelter for as long as possible before you go outside, preferably wait until help arrives.
Fun fact the instructions they tell you to do if you are outside during a missile strike to cover your head and fall to the ground is just so you make the job easier when people come to clean up the dead bodies. In short. If you had a bad day and went outside to go and catch your breath, during a nuclear holocaust your sure to meet your death.
@@annana6098 Actually don't let the dust settle it's radioactive and you will get contaminated.
@@calebfuller64 That is exactly why you want to let it settle; do you want to wait, let some of it get underground or carried by the river and only get your feets a little contaminated by decaided particles or do you want to breath not decaided particles?
Dave Thorton ok then. But I still think that u shouldn’t be outside during that
This film is the harsh realization that could have been. The Cold War was a Real threat, we're all glad it didn't end like This
Bryce McKenzie I know war is a horrible thing. mad is the last thing you hear in the film is so sad not just the main characters die but they have a son and it says they had a son with a child they both died it’s so sad
Not all of us are glad dont forget the people who poured thousands into luvly fallout shelters
Random capitals Are fun!
Your everywhere!
I'm also glad it didn't end like this, but the Cold War still cost many lives and we are still dealing with the aftermath.
I always thought the 'you stupid bitch' line was so powerful. As far as I remember it was the sole curse word in the entire film, and it happened at arguably the most pivotal moment in the plot: for all his bluster and reminiscing on the Blitz, James isn't stupid. What he's been hearing about on the radio is now an immediate threat to him and his wife, and him saying 'you stupid bitch' is reflective of that sudden realization, that dawning comprehension and fear.
As an American who saw this when it was released and available stateside, we were stupid teens who thought it was something like The Simpsons. Imagine our horrorified 14,15 year old faces of guys and gals just hanging out, watching our deepest fear unfold!!! We were all crying at the end. It was so beautifully and pragmatically executed. Back then, a slower pace would hardly be noticed....which made the ending quite shocking to us all. Definitely still poignant today.😪 Sadly.
If you stay beyond the very last of the ending credits of this movie, and you wait for the last of the music to fade out, in the silence, the last thing you will hear is a progression of telegraph beeping noises which are codes. Those codes stand for MAD which means Mutually Assured Destruction. Both sides and possibly more sides were completely wiped out. If anything, that's the eeriest part of the movie for me. Nothing else in the movie freaked me out, but hearing that code, and then everything fades to black. Chilling. There was absolutely nothing left, and the old couple was soon to join the gravely quiet, looming death and stillness that was surrounding them the entire time since the bombs fell. Death itself is basically just noiselessly pacing about their dark house, looking at them with its hollow eyes and waiting for the hapless stragglers to finally die. The old couple's now haunted-looking home and flimsy "bomb shelter" that they were joking about just days ago, ultimately became their dark tomb as they waited for the help of ghosts that would never, ever come.
@HamburgersAndBeer Sure is. :o And I don't creep out that easily. XD
@F.D. Plot Twist: The old couple become ghouls and when you finally run into them, they are delighted to have the company. They give you new markers on your map, offer you directions, and give you information and polite banter. All of this along with a spot of irradiated tea and currant treats of course. Hilda ghoul is still trying to tidy up after all these years.
@@michaelkaufield876 Anytime, lovely. ;P
Wow that's like
Super depressing
When you put it like that it just sounds like a horror movie :P
As a teenager in the 80s, there were references to impending nuclear war everywhere, pop songs, TV series, movies, books, magazines, t-shirts - everywhere. My history class even had a map up in the room showing how the surrounding counties would fair if nearby Washington, DC was bombed. It showed our location would be obliterated in the initial blast, for better or worse. And then....it all just went away. A weird time.
Now days it's everything. every generation has its boogie Man
Yup, I remember it pretty vividly, especially when tensions with the USSR were getting worse. Sirens were being tested in my home town regularly. Movies like The Day After and Threads didn't help. I think some kids were even developing a severe anxiety over the threat of nuclear war. Although The Cold War is over, the threat is still there. An accidental launch can still start it or worst case scenario, some nuclear power goes mad and decides to start launching their missiles. Then there's always the possibility we can have something similar to Skynet like in the Terminator movies if we let AI take over.
Once every few years the pre k thru 12th grade public school in my area still does fall out drills taking all students and staff to the local dedicated fall out shelter
It turns out that both sides never even had a plan for a conventional attack in Germanyy so all those sleepless nights were for nothing. Nobody was gonna launch nukes at nobody.
99 red balloons anyone?
I think Super Critical justify the hybrid animation really well.
They explained that the hybrid animation was meant to portray reality as the film progressed. At the start of the movie some if not most of the objects in the house are animated to highlight the characters ignorance of the event that’s going to happen and by the end of the film James and Hilda are the only two animated features in the film showing that reality and fatalism are finally grounded into our two main characters.
I was a teenager in the UK in the 1970-80s, I remember asking my Dad what we would do if the bomb went off. He said that as we lived close to a military target, not to worry as if the bomb dropped we’d be instantly vaporised. I know he said this to reassure me, but it terrified me. It was a strange time to grow up in, knowing each moment could well be your last. This film is one that you prob wouldn’t want to watch more than once, but it is def worth a viewing.
I think they're reactions post-bomb are completely in character as, like you mentioned, they remember the Blitz. They're doing what they did back then; tidying up the broken bits and carrying on with life. It's sad, and sometimes humorous, but overall shows how unprepared they are for this awful 'modern warfare'
They didnt wanna do a proper exploration of the area because they were probably thinking if they left their house to go explore hoping to find help they'd miss their chance for potential governmental assistance despite the fact how they're realistically the only 2 living people left alive probably not just in their own country but in the whole world because when the bomb dropped it activated the MAD protocol which resulted in other countries dropping nukes on each other as a counter attack.
@@KnightofFunnyJunk there would be some survivors most would not be in Europe though they would be in North America and South America a person from the USA would be more likely to own a bomb shelter then most others and South America would be less affected by radiation from nuclear fallout (the Falkland Islands which is a British colony in South America would also receive less of the fallout due to geography so its residents may still be alive) as for the Soviet Union due to communist policies its citizens could not build a bomb shelter and even if a soviet city has a public shelter people would kill each other for the rations in there anyways (I am aware this is random to bring up but I just wanted to ramble about the Cold War)
@@RussianEmpire-sq4qi some people in rural America or rural Russia might be ok, but yeah. If you were in Europe you would be screwed
@@captainkyperplayz1162 I've heard that the most powerful nukes would be bad enough to kill people from radiation poisoning in an area the size of multiple states (the big ones, not the little ones in the northeast) especially as the radiation slowly spreads in the direction of the wind. Unless there was only one dropped on one major city, everyone would be dead. Drop multiple along the coasts and I'd bet even the rural Americans in the center would have very serious health problems if not die
The "I'm not in the mood"-joke does not only make me laugh, it also makes me happy. We sometimes forget that older people actually do have love-lives.
Lol
Yeah I always chuckle at Hilda’s sassy little reply at that part.
Not in my bed they don’t,
@@robinhughes8822 you poor thing
@@robinhughes8822Thank goodness
5:23 Honestly I can see people in the future probably reminiscing on being able to stay at home for a week and not have to do anything at all during quarantine
Heartbreaking film, the finest critique of Protect & Survive there's been apart from THREADS. That film remains the most devastating piece of television ever made. I saw it with my parents age 9 and I've never truly recovered.
Ah the 80s, when we had cartoons about dead rabbits and nuclear armageddon...what a time it was
Damn I wish I was in that era
At least we also got He-Man, TMNT, Transformers, Thundercats, Ducktales, and everything else.
Watership Down is technically a 1970s movie, but yeah. I highly recommend the book Scarred For Life which is all about the wild shit that went on in the UK at this time.
Watership down was in the 70's
There was also Threads.
Story telling is always stronger when you focus on the small.
We always understand. Nukes kill all. Millions will die. But that doesn’t mean too much if you think about it.
But you give us two. Two people we can relate to. Two we understand. Then put these two through hell, then you truly understand. This heart tearing story we just lived through happened over and over. Slight variations, but the same ending. Then you begin to truly understand the horrors of war.
We have known that larger scale nuclear fuckery will most assuredly kill many, but watching Jim and Hilda slowly waste away and contend with life never being the same-including never being able to talk to their son again-is what gets to you. This forces you to see it at a microscopic and not macroscopic level. Jim and Hilda become our parents or grandparents here. We are now watching our grandparents die. Kinda like the fireman or paramedic who sees the face of their child in the child who is now in the ambulance, riding to the hospital and knowing he isn’t going to make it.
The bomb is there to be more of a deterrent rather than a sure shot. It is ultimately used as a last resort. Nobody, I mean, nobody wants to press that button. Because if they do, WWIII will be like a pizza-hot an ready in less than 15 minutes or the next one is free! That’s a guarantee when a rocket can reach main bus in low orbit and ruin about 10 million peoples’ day in minutes!
It’s my hope with Physics that we understand and use wisely the natural world or it will bite us on the ass. It’s time we are responsible. Hopefully his film drives home the need for using Physics responsibly!
“The epic of the small.” Small scale can be just as dramatic and moving as large scale if not more so.
"A single death is a tragedy, a milion death is statistic"
This took place in the 80’s a time when I was in school and we were very much worried about nuclear war all the time! Kids today simply do not understand what it was like hearing sirens, knowing where fallout shelters were, the never ending EBS messages on TV, and crawling underneath your desks in school when a siren would sound over the school intercom. This was the reality Generation X children (and before) and it’s something that I’ve never forgotten.
Yeah, but now we have to deal with the anxiety of some messed up kid or drugged up adult breaking into the school and or pulling their dad's gun out of their backpack and killing as many people as possible. Both generations are Fed up in their own ways.
its 2022 and this film has become essential viewing in light of geopolitical instability
What would have been funny (in an ironic sense) is if everything was burned BUT Hilda's cake!
But, real nuclear war is nothing to laugh at.
But there is many many jokes about nuclear war
Well if fucking doors stop a blast then why not
What about if, nothing but the cake gets burned.
Nuke Wars amuse me. Humanity... You failed again.
@@absolstoryoffiction6615 humanity you fucked up again
Hilda doesn't even look that old. She looks absolutely Adorable.
Would smas-
No.
You just want to give her a hug like she was your own grandmother.
Simp
@@deeplyzebra9079 Incel
Until her skin and teeth fall out
One reason that Jim and Hilda were the only characters seen in this film, was part of Raymond Briggs's urge to make a story about a horrific subject, but in the least horrific way. So that's why they have no neighbours, and also, unlike some other Raymond Briggs characters, no pets.
This movie made me weep. The couple was just so sweet and watching them slowly deteriorate gutted me.
the cake part is actually kind of eerie as well. just the echo of her yelling while you watch everything burn and disintegrate around them
It was to show that she has dementia.
She couldn't process that a nuclear war had started even though James had been warning her it could happen for several days.
Her worrying about the cake was to show that she didn't understand what was happening.
James spends the rest of the film lying to her and inventing innocent explanations for the "odd things" that she notices.
He actually knows whats happening but he's protecting her from the truth.
One of the sub-plots of the film is that James knows that Hilda has dementia and he is being "extra nice" to her because he is trying to enjoy every moment he has left with her.
You see what James is normally like when he shouts at Hilda and calls her a bitch.
Hilda reacts to it by immediately becoming docile.
James isn't normally this polite and sweet, he's putting on an act.
The way his son talks to him on the phone shows that James has a strained relationship with him.
After the blast James continues doing what he'd been doing before, keeping Hilda comfortable and enjoying every last moment they have together.
exactly! it kinda freaks me out
@@glennchartrand5411Multiple things in the movie deny those reasons.
1. James was already a good husband in the first part. Sometimes he just cracked some jokes.
2. James was also having trouble with remembering things that helped him survive in WWII.
3. James was the first to leave the shelter, not Hilda.
4. James was the one to suggest going outside and getting water, even bringing out lawn chairs.
James was unfamiliar with the situations himself, and was just as naive as Hilda, he was just only a tiny bit more knowledgeable.
@@glennchartrand5411I don't think she has dementia. I think she's just naive, typical of someone who's lived in isolation and has only been focused on looking after their house.
7:37 It's dumb to have that line in the movie considering he says "come back you stupid fool" in the book.
I think it was changed to make it feel like a real panic situation
After studying effects of nuclear attacks watching the elderly couple mistake radiation sickness for a shock and thinking that everything would be just like before was sad.
Every sequence of Hilda daydreaming with that calm music almost made me cry, also the parts in which they showed the couple's life. And in the end when they started praying and you see the doors flying in the sky... there I ultimately started crying. It saddens me that some lives, some stories get destroyed just like that, by something else that comes out of nowhere and decides someone's fate. They were just living their lives and then it gets all taken away, it saddens me that things like that are probably still going to happen to future generations, also if you count a possible end of the world
The scene in the graphic novel where he tries to sing a song to make hilda feel better and his gums start bleeding sbdnfnfndnddn i'm gonna cry
Oh God, really? That sounds so, so awful...
):
When she said she didn’t have any more crockery and couldn’t serve a proper meal got me. 🥺
thats literally gonna haunt me
@@OnkelFenrir It's chilling. Probably one of 2 things in the novel that always stuck with me:
James, in tattered clothes. His hair is gone. Arms outstretched, gaunt skin covered in blemishes and red burns. 2 eyes set uncannily far back into inflamed, purple sockets. A big, bruised smile with a trail blood running down his face from the bottom if it. Behind him lies the ruined kitchen. Above him, a jolly speech bubble. He's just finishing the chorus to the song "Old Kit Bag": The words "Smile, Smile, Smile."
Just haunting.
"But at times, the [animation] doesn't line up so well [...] Mostly because the stop motion has far fewer frames. And can make the characters not feel like they are a part of the world they are living in."
I am absolutely certain that this is on purpose. The elderly couple's attitude is completely out of tune with reality. It ABSOLUTELY DOES feel like they are living in a cartoonish world of make-believe, stuttering along, while the world moves on around them.
One of the most fucked up parts of the movie no one really talks about is the phone conversation that Jim has with his son. The conversation is already dark enough when Jim hangs up the phone and he goes to his wife and tells her "Can you believe our son? He says we'll all go together when the bomb goes off."
"We'll all go together" can means 2 different meanings depending upon how you wanna interpret that phone call
It could mean either "When the bomb kills us all we'll all die as a family" or "I will kill my family before the bomb kills us all." Jim's son straight up told his father that he'll kill his wife and children as their last moment of peace before having to experience the horror of either being vaporized in the Hypocenter or having to deal with the suffering his father and mother had to put themselves thru.
@@KnightofFunnyJunk , that's super dark
And the stop-motion environments were based on the Protect and Survive shorts, which had pamphlets containing the advice that Jim takes to heart.
@@KnightofFunnyJunk WTF
Saw the thumbnail in the videofeed and my heart sank, my stomach turned, cold sweat poured from every orifice, for this story is the most shocking story one can randomly pick up in recess at the school's library. I couldn't even continue school that day, I was pale, sick and lethargic just from reading the book. The artwork is amazing, the style even more amazing.
It is now over half my life ago when I first and last read that book, but it still lingers on in my nightmares. I think I need to watch some fluffy bunnies and kittens before and after this.
As depressing as the second half of the film is, with how they remain in such a gentle tone the entire time, it feels rather .. calming. It's an oddly relaxing film for me despite the circumstances
7:38 Holy shit, actual comedy gold.
make it a meme
When I'm building a base in rust with my mates and I see a group of fully armed guys sprinting towards us
imagine having THIS as your own PERSONAL ringtone for your phone...
Profane Gunman no lie I pictured the voice of John Cleese saying this line and Eric Idle reacting in his woman impersonation. Monty Python for the younger kids out there.
@@Nochannel-qb3km Yeah XD
7:37 when you’re the only Walmart employee that realizes it’s Black Friday
Cecilia Suarez, That cheered me up thank you.
RIP
7:37 should be a meme
7:38
Neon The Teletubbie that should be a text tone XD
Watching such an adorable and endearing elderly couple such as Jim and HIlda, die a slow and painful death while remaining admirably optimistic about the situation... It just crushes you...
Just a small remark: the duck and cover or door bunker precautions were totally alright solutions, they were obviously not meant for those in the epicentre of the blast but those farther away to numb down things like the shockwave.
2:02 The makeshift shelters aren't for stopping a nuclear blast, it's for protection against flying debris.
Partially yes, but mostly to stop mass panic.
Ya like the debris is going to hit you before the B-A-B will
I remember reading that it was to contain the bodies in one place when rescuers came to collect the dead. The paper bags made it easier to handle the burden
@@BucketOfFuk I would not be able to handle being a rescuer collecting the dead in a post nuclear city seeing that sight would scar me for life
@@RussianEmpire-sq4qi Oh same. It's would be a good cause but also so traumatizing.
To me the worst part of their blissful ignorance, which they portray throughout the film, is a scene about half way through after the bombs drop when its revealed they have a cellar.. and Hilda questions whether going down there may have been a better idea.. but James shrugs it off saying "Oh, no, dear. Too damp. Think of my rheumatism".. F*ck your rheumatism, its certainly a far better idea than the governmental advice using doors against a wall.
The crazy thing about that however, and is actually quite a big plot hole, if you watch those 'protect and survive' PSAs, they DO suggest going underground into a cellar/basement if possible, or at least the deepest layer of your home...
I haven't watched it but I was wondering if they had a cellar...seems pretty standard to have in the countryside.
Zoomer Waffen, That’s kinda the point, what they are told to do does not make much sense and is counterproductive.
But as they don’t know much about this new type of war they just listen to the government and do what they are told.
Compared to how the states had people making shelters that could more or less withstand a nuke and the after effects.
The British government downplayed the situation went with the refuge shelter than issues suits, medicine and shelters parts that would protect the population from a nuke.
This is where the films make it point that the British government was unprepared and possibly unwilling to take better steps against this new type of war.
I actually bought this as a VHS video and remember the local government issued a leaflet instructing us to shelter under the stairs with our bedding,food,water,toilet etc etc!!!.This is South of England UK..My son was shown the film at school and came home quite upset about it..I do regret having thrown away that instructive leaflet..tho maybe it is still under the stairs..LOL..and I will find it when I next have a clear out..what a piece of history that would be..🌄🚀🌬
Well, I mean this did take place in 1986. Y'know, where information wasn't easily spread through the internet or major messages. They are old people as well and many elders were stubborn with their choices. Like, even in the scene where the bomb went off, the woman worried more about her cake in the oven. The grandmother's cake was in the oven when the husband called her over to the shelter. That was why he said it with urgency.
Zoomer Waffen, Threads, there are scenes in that movie that will haunt me till the day I die.
I knew it was bleak but Jesus Christ I wasn’t expecting it to be that hopeless.
I think the casual conversation part made it so much more sad for me. It made the characters seem so normal and oblivious to what will happen to them.
James and hilda: *wondering why their papers and milk haven’t been delivered*
The paper boy and milk man: *literally a dead burned up skeleton*
" and if it doesnt, its not the end of the world."
*Seinfield theme starts playing *
RikaRikaw i don’t get that
@@mossievie really? I thought the seinfield theme was a universally understood thing.
xD
7:39 when I first heard that I thought he said “you stupid pigeon”
B**** vs pigeon
PRUUUH PRUHHH
@Awsomlot
Do not say the P word
@Anna Lialine FBI OPEN UP!!
I can hear it now holy heck
It's 2022, and this has aged...MAGNIFICENTLY well!
I would disagree on the "James swearing" argument.
Throughout, the film makes it a point that James does not swear. So when he finally does, it's out of seriousness and desperation to save Hilda. I think it fits the moment perfectly.
7:28 Sorry Steve but this felt right on point to me. You're right. He never speaks like that. But when you're in a panic and life is on the line all that shit gets thrown out the window. Speaking from personal experience. This really helped the film feel more realistic to me. Not to mention his emotions would have been running high as he's been fusing over this for some time.
DodgeThisBam, Plus if you are British and lived through ww2 you know to keep calm and carry on.
The moment he yells “come back you stupid bitch and get in the shelter” you know it’s serious.
Why do you think soldiers swear like sailors out in the field? Because bullets are flying and bodies are blowing apart. No time for pleasantries. Even if it's your beloved child, once emotions run high, it isn't "come here sweetie" it's "GET YOUR FUCKING ASS OVER HERE NOW!"
How did he not get that his lack of swearing and mild manneredness was meant as a build up for that line?
@@rhondahoward8025
Commanders were instructed to not and in fact rarely ducked for cover. Some even walked jauntily through crossfire without catching a single bullet.
The only time this happened to me was a few months back and me and my friend where waiting to cross the road and he just walks out oblivious to the BMW driving towards him, I yelled, " GET BACK YOU DUMB FUCK!" and grabbed him by his hood and yanked him back
"You *stupid botch* "
Me: *wheezes* and nearly dies.
"YOU STUPID B I T C H"
YouU stUpiD bITch
Time?
@@ok-mn1we 7:37
I know its meant to be serious, but it was funny than it is serious.
I dunno why but the scene with the missle was destroying everything with the music and Hilda's panic about the cake gave me sudden chills.
"3 minutes until the missles arrive"
"Welp, I better do the washing up"
/are you kidding me?/
If my partner was trying to not only do but fucking START the laundry when we are about to get obliterated, I would be right to call them a bitch even normally never curse.
The slow beginning of the movie really does help develop the husband's personality, memory, and intelligence. To see those things fade as the radiation sickness kills them, is sad and horrifying. I love the surrealism art style, mixing the medium, made for a work of art that accurately plays to the realism and severity of the issue. They wanted to make sure the characters looked like the comic, but also wanted to ensure that people stayed grounded in this being realistic. Everything, except the couple, being real physical things, does this as well as visually represents the disconnect they have from reality, even in the beginning. I loved this movie, it's awful but is a masterpiece in its own right.
I actually prefer it when a show or movie let characters have casual conversations. Because you know, thats what people do.
Same
About the precautions: Yeah, they not gonna save you when the bomb drops directly on your head. They can however save you if you are several miles away and the blastwave is not strong enough to instantly vaporize you, but still strong enough to send shrapnel and debris flying your way. So those tips were not completely useless. It´s kinda like a blastsuit won´t save you when the bomb detonates directly under you, but will save you if the bomb is a few meters away.
But what about the flash fires that come after a shockwave? After your windows pop like thin balloons your shelter just became a burning coffin
@@thelittleagustus.2292
Really not if you are far away. The absolute deadly radius of an atomic bomb isnt as big as many imagine. For example in Nagasaki 'only' 35000 of 260000 residents died directly from the bombs immediate effects.
It was to reduce the injuries of people far enough away to survive the blast.
Imagine surviving the attack but dying 3 days later because you had a 5 inch long splinter nick your intestine.
The pamphlets in America were largely written for people in farming communities.
The advice for city dwellers was "get the Hell out of the city."
@@glennchartrand5411 Uk advice was to stay where you are 😬
@@SangerZonvolt In the case of Nagasaki, not like Hiroshima, there are hills and valleys there and this geographical features saved many people there
I used to rent this on vhs every week as a child. It really spoke to me about regular people's attitude to trying to do the "correct thing" with a positive mindset, who take care of each other. Bizarrely, it never frightened or worried me. However, now it does a bit more! Gorgeously animated and performed. Incredibly powerful.
The start is reality. The youth. People who aren't taking the government's advice seriously (like their son). It's the modern world with modern music. And then we compare how isolated and quiet their lives are. It's the sound of the city versus the country, young versus old.
The pace reflects the humdrum everyday lives of the elderly retired couple. It gives us the chance to get to know them, their repetitive lives and is in stark contrast to the latter scenes.
I love this film.
Syris Allen: “See that film? I showed him that film.”
Caillou's grandparents.
That's what I was thinking!
Lmao
O H N O
Jesus. That made me cry a little.
sPongebItch bObface So that cartoon took place before the movie?! *mind blown*
I’m just a kid who’s four
Surviving the nuclear war!
I’m cailou
Cailou
THATS ME
So that's why he's bald... the nuclear radiation
Cailou the ghoul
Welcome to PBS Fallout
DJ PurpleTIG3R Gaming that joke is really bad tbh...
Saeid Radder bald but true
That One Potato On Your Shelf 👍🏽
2:19 duck and cover was actually based on the advice of Hiroshima and Nagasaki survivors, I think, and its bad reputation is somewhat unwarranted. It's designed to protect against the tertiary blast, not being at the heart or immediate blast vicinity.
Coming back to watch this because of the things happening right now.
Great review. I just disagree with your comment on the son. I wouldn't say he is laughing his father off, he has realised what his parents won't and fallen into despair. For very good reason, too.
Erik Tobias Larsson, That does make some sense.
U make me cry
Grave of the Fireflies was also based on a true story about two brothers (not a brother and sister like in the movie). Sad stuff some people have to go through.
@carlos blanco not at its core no, but it's presentation very much makes it easy to assume that that is all it is, especially for us as an audience where this movie was NOT shown to us as adolescents in order to learn from it. the person who lead the production for the movie, isao takahata, was himself a victim in WW2 and wanted the film to help inform and bridge the gap between the generation of WW2 to those in the 1980s and to teach the younger audience that this WAS a thing that happened, and to not forget the victims of such horrific events. OP probably meant to say both films show the victims of atrocities like war, it's just that the context of production for both films were different for the creators.
Jay Evans - Your making assumptions just as well as others. It depends on your beliefs/perspective that showing the horrors of war makes it anti-war. Like if explaining the health problems of being obese makes you anti-fat & prejudice on overweight people. Maybe it was an unintentional theme accidentally created with the direction. It falls on the thin line of authorial intent vs viewer interpretation. So the viewer can’t take any consequences of war ideals from the film or reference/watch it on the subject. Would that make Isao a warmonger if he had the power. Should it be interpreted as anti war since it goes so well with the movie. Is he completely against any war or recognize justifiable needs to wage war.
Lord Sigge
thats the firsr movie to make me cry
Some wars had to be fought. And war advances human technological progress so it isn't entirely bad.
WW2 and the Cold War gave us computers, electronics, many things we use today are or are based on products of war. Anti-war is stupid. Sure war causes suffering and death. But war has also saved lives too.
War is a neccessary evil to maintian balance. Peace wouldn't exist without war and vice versa.
There's an interesting paradox I once heard. If you want peace, you have to prepare for war.
IMHO, "...you stupid b1tch..." His love for his wife transcends even the most ingrained politeness, with seconds to spare he sacrificed all his character to save his wife.
I didn't really find the pacing slow at all. Everything in the film has a purpose--the first half shows how simple their lives are and how they find joy in ordinary matters such as cooking, tidying up the house and going shopping. It also shows everything they're about to lose. The latter half shows them trying desperately to maintain normalcy, despite the fact that they're now living in an irradiated wasteland. I never get bored watching it. Regarding the animation, I think the combination of live action, hand-drawn animation and stop-motion is meant to give it a somewhat surreal feeling, given what they're experiencing. The last half especially when they're getting into the stop-motion paper bags looks more like a burial shroud, which is exactly what they become
DONT YOU DARE START STIMULATING IM NOT IN THE MOOD!
I can believe no one is mentioning that line!!! That killed me.
That's an attitude women need to give up... Their a would that needs re-populating.. "So his proper reply should be
" GET BACK HERE BITCH I NEED TO GET INSIDE YOUR SHELTER"
@@robkitchen5344?
😂
@@robkitchen5344 what an awful take
@@robkitchen5344 fairly certian repopulation with 2 people, especially 2 elderly people is... Impossible, you need at least 50 highly gentic diverse people, with breeding policies.
7:38 That's how I call my dog before it rains
i mean if your dog is female....
I say that to my friends
The whole point with the doors,
"duck and cover" this was because the initial blast of a nuclear bomb will blind you permanently even if your beyond the blast zone, So that first part you basically said there is no point to duck and cover, Well that's a bad assessment because the doors though not much physical protection they would prove extremely fortuitous as eye protection and heat shielding.
the initial blast can blind you but only temporarily. Neither does it happen to everyone nearby nor do victims stay blind. Otherwhise no one in Hiroshima and Nagasaki would have eyesight,
If you're up for it... try Perfect Blue. Japanese animation from 1997, but without the crushing sadness of Grave of the Fireflies.
Great movie
How about Barefoot Gen. That's I think a lot more realistic.
@@medexamtoolsdotcom I don't know Barefoot Gen, what's that?
I forgot about that movie
Maybe I like the crushing sadness.
*a bomb goes off killing nearly everyone in the area
Hilda: M Y C A K E
This review has many odd statements which I will correct:
The UK is not struck by 'a missile', but many.
They survived because they lived in the countryside, not near a target.
The shelter design suggested by the Government would be reasonably effective in certain circumstances, where the main building structure has remained largely intact and wind patterns keep the fallout levels low. Obviously it would not help in a direct hit, but then almost nothing could withstand that. Whether they would survive long-term is a different matter. Its hard to see how two old people would have much chance in the post-attack world.
Remember watching this when i was a kid. I agree with the description of this video. Dark but also beautiful
7:38 when it turns night in minecraft
oof
xD
Triforce27
Did you just swear in my Christian Minecraft server?
Lol
I'm pretty sure I've said that exact line at some point while playing minecraft.
I remember watching this in school as a kid. I don't remember how old I was, but I remember being really affected by it, and a line Hilda says a few times, "As long as there's a light, someone else is alive." (Something to that effect). I could never remember the name, and no one I know really knew about it, but man its heavy to look back on.
YOU STUPID BITCH
So I've just watched about 2 of your videos and I already feel mentally drained. While watching this I found myself asking when will I die, when will my loved ones die, and if it's even worth to live if we're all just gonna die someday. I applaud you for watching these movies in their entirety and am amazed on how you haven't fallen into insanity yet.
"Nothing ever did come of the cold war"
Quotes that didn't age well in 2022
I’ve just been reading comments posted 2 - 3 years ago and wondering if I was the only one to have found it in the midst of recent threats
5:42 that animation is very smooth in my opinion
And it fits perfectly with the narrator
That animation was smooth as butter