SPOILERS May be included in my review:
It takes a truly gifted film and TV maker to mix humour and light hearted dialogue with utter heartbreak. These talented geniuses reel in their audience and lull them into a sense of light hearted expectation and then sucker punch a hole straight through their soul leaving them feeling like they've hit by an emotional freight train. Paul Whitehouse could do it the 'The Fast Show' (Rowley Birkin QC comes to mind) - as could Sir David Jason's character Derek Trotter in 'Only Fools and Horses' The finale of Ben Elton and Richard Curtis' 'Blackadder Goes Fourth' where they go over-the-top to be shot down instantly in the fabulous last scene ever to be shot in the Blackadder series. You know that you have been laughing real hard the whole way through the show and you know you absolutely should not be laughing now.
As I say, a tough thing to do successfully. This animated masterpiece does the same. 'PinHead' from the movie Hellraiser claimed he was going to 'tear you soul apart' - well scriptwriter Raymond Briggs, director Jimmy Murakami, voice actors John Mills and Peggy Ashcroft, Soundtrack contributors Pink Floyd - David Bowie - Genesis - Paul Hardcastle - Squeeze and the hundreds and hundreds of animators do just that..... Who doesn't recognise their Aunts and Uncles, Mothers and Fathers, Grandmothers and Grandfathers in the two elderly main protagonists Jim and Hilda. With their British stiff upper lip, their almost romantic notion of war dating from their experiences in WWII - 'we'll teach the Hun like we did in 42' as an example of their utterly misguided hopes that it will all be OK.
It's not OK. It's as far away from OK as it possibly could be. Jim and Hilda are expecting a few bombs and so hide under the makeshift shelter they have built. They built the shelter because the government told them to. The government knew it was pointless to do so but they lied about the survivability of the 300-400 megaton attack the United Kingdom would suffer and Jim and Hilda believed them. Touchingly, during the build up as the mood darkens slowly - relentlessly - Jim calls his son in London to make sure he is prepared for the attack and that his 'inner core or refuge' is built and they are ready to get into it, only to find his son on the end of the telephone in a state of utter mental overload/breakdown. Jim assumes his son is drunk and even though we only hear the conversation from Jim's side it is obvious to everyone *except* Jim that his son has simply lost his mind. Jim almost thinks it's funny, the viewer knows it is anything but....
As the pace quickens and we find our lovable (and we do love them) Jim and Hilda in their inner core or refuge, we witness an amazing animated piece depicting the end of the world as Jim and Hilda know it. The dust settles and the second act is an abject lesson in horrific despair, with an almost clinical breakdown describing and showing stages of the breakdown of the human body and the breakdown of Jim and Hilda's everything. A breakdown of the breakdown of everything ...
20 minutes ago the film was showing us a dear old couple arguing like only those who've been married for 50 years can argue. Good natured banter with Jim pointing out to Hilda that very large thermonuclear weapons are on their way and now is perhaps not the time to be bringing the clothes in off the washing line and finishing cleaning the pots and pans. 20 minutes ago Jim was reassuring Hilda that everything will be just fine once the bombs had gone off and that they can get the mess cleared up when the all clear signal is broadcast.
20 minutes ago Hilda was not passing blood in the toilet. 25 minutes ago Jim wasn't vomiting blood. 30 minutes ago Jim and Hilda had a full head of hair instead of the clumps that are falling out now. 35 minutes ago Hilda wasn't breaking out in awful blistering and hemorrhaging from every orifice.
At this point the viewers mind is utterly shattered with the complete hopelessness of their situation. As I watched them trying to survive the unsurvivable I found myself hoping against all hope that this lovely pair of old timers would live, somehow survive.....long enough to be killed by the leukaemia and bone cancers that are a near 100% guarantee after their level of exposure I guess... I didn't want them to die, nobody wants them to die, except maybe the crazy bastards with the launch codes tucked away under a mountain somewhere safe and air-conditioned.
Hollywood tries to condition movie watchers to an often wishy-washy happy ending.... 'Oh no hold it there sir - there'll be none of that nonsense in this film .... for Christ's sake this is not Hollywood dear viewer, they've just been exposed to so many roentgens that their internal organs are turning into liquid sh|te'
Talk about mixed emotions. Just f****** hardcore.
Glen Lewis
It takes a truly gifted film and TV maker to mix humour and light hearted dialogue with utter heartbreak. These talented geniuses reel in their audience and lull them into a sense of light hearted expectation and then sucker punch a hole straight through their soul leaving them feeling like they've hit by an emotional freight train. Paul Whitehouse could do it the 'The Fast Show' (Rowley Birkin QC comes to mind) - as could Sir David Jason's character Derek Trotter in 'Only Fools and Horses' The finale of Ben Elton and Richard Curtis' 'Blackadder Goes Fourth' where they go over-the-top to be shot down instantly in the fabulous last scene ever to be shot in the Blackadder series. You know that you have been laughing real hard the whole way through the show and you know you absolutely should not be laughing now.
As I say, a tough thing to do successfully. This animated masterpiece does the same. 'PinHead' from the movie Hellraiser claimed he was going to 'tear you soul apart' - well scriptwriter Raymond Briggs, director Jimmy Murakami, voice actors John Mills and Peggy Ashcroft, Soundtrack contributors Pink Floyd - David Bowie - Genesis - Paul Hardcastle - Squeeze and the hundreds and hundreds of animators do just that..... Who doesn't recognise their Aunts and Uncles, Mothers and Fathers, Grandmothers and Grandfathers in the two elderly main protagonists Jim and Hilda. With their British stiff upper lip, their almost romantic notion of war dating from their experiences in WWII - 'we'll teach the Hun like we did in 42' as an example of their utterly misguided hopes that it will all be OK.
It's not OK. It's as far away from OK as it possibly could be. Jim and Hilda are expecting a few bombs and so hide under the makeshift shelter they have built. They built the shelter because the government told them to. The government knew it was pointless to do so but they lied about the survivability of the 300-400 megaton attack the United Kingdom would suffer and Jim and Hilda believed them. Touchingly, during the build up as the mood darkens slowly - relentlessly - Jim calls his son in London to make sure he is prepared for the attack and that his 'inner core or refuge' is built and they are ready to get into it, only to find his son on the end of the telephone in a state of utter mental overload/breakdown. Jim assumes his son is drunk and even though we only hear the conversation from Jim's side it is obvious to everyone *except* Jim that his son has simply lost his mind. Jim almost thinks it's funny, the viewer knows it is anything but....
As the pace quickens and we find our lovable (and we do love them) Jim and Hilda in their inner core or refuge, we witness an amazing animated piece depicting the end of the world as Jim and Hilda know it. The dust settles and the second act is an abject lesson in horrific despair, with an almost clinical breakdown describing and showing stages of the breakdown of the human body and the breakdown of Jim and Hilda's everything. A breakdown of the breakdown of everything ...
20 minutes ago the film was showing us a dear old couple arguing like only those who've been married for 50 years can argue. Good natured banter with Jim pointing out to Hilda that very large thermonuclear weapons are on their way and now is perhaps not the time to be bringing the clothes in off the washing line and finishing cleaning the pots and pans. 20 minutes ago Jim was reassuring Hilda that everything will be just fine once the bombs had gone off and that they can get the mess cleared up when the all clear signal is broadcast.
20 minutes ago Hilda was not passing blood in the toilet. 25 minutes ago Jim wasn't vomiting blood. 30 minutes ago Jim and Hilda had a full head of hair instead of the clumps that are falling out now. 35 minutes ago Hilda wasn't breaking out in awful blistering and hemorrhaging from every orifice.
At this point the viewers mind is utterly shattered with the complete hopelessness of their situation. As I watched them trying to survive the unsurvivable I found myself hoping against all hope that this lovely pair of old timers would live, somehow survive.....long enough to be killed by the leukaemia and bone cancers that are a near 100% guarantee after their level of exposure I guess... I didn't want them to die, nobody wants them to die, except maybe the crazy bastards with the launch codes tucked away under a mountain somewhere safe and air-conditioned.
Hollywood tries to condition movie watchers to an often wishy-washy happy ending.... 'Oh no hold it there sir - there'll be none of that nonsense in this film .... for Christ's sake this is not Hollywood dear viewer, they've just been exposed to so many roentgens that their internal organs are turning into liquid sh|te'
Talk about mixed emotions. Just f****** hardcore.
Glen Lewis