When the Wind Blows

The couple's descent into sickness and implied death is more effective than all the mushroom clouds, bombed-out buildings, and piles of bodies that the genre has given us before and since.

"They didn't blow up the sun, did they?" - "Oh no dear, science is still in its infancy". Threads ('84) with its dramatized "what if" about people in and after a nukefest, was as informative as it was (very) horrific. When the Wind Blows rather credits the viewer with understanding the reprecautions already - hence the Bloggs' virtual cluelessness is used to great ironic, comical and then tragic effect. By some point it is overdone a bit, but generally a film both harrowing and hilarious.

NOT the cartoon that you might expect. A highly mannered and decent but naive British couple attempt to deal with a nuclear attack. Quietly moving and tragic

At once an affirmation of life and a rebuke of the evil it's capable of. The naïveté of the couple is devastating in their blind faith towards the society they wrongly believe will protect them, and yet, their fortitude of will to do their best despite their circumstance represents the best of our condition. There's a sequence of the couple's - Jim and Hilda's - commitment, their quiet affirmation of living, that brought me to tears. The film is the very definition of Common Grace.

Don't be fooled by the children's story-like animation: this is very dark and gloomy. Although, the couple's cluelessness does make for some brilliant moments of black humor.