MovieChat Forums > When the Wind Blows (1988) Discussion > Is it just me or is the dialogue very mu...

Is it just me or is the dialogue very much rooted in exposition?



I could have sworn I remembered hearing alot of instructions you would find in a textbook rather than natural human conversation.

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Well Jim was using a lot of references from the "Governmental Directive" which appeared to contradict the second pamphlet produced by the County Council.

Being simple folk, they took the directive to be some sort of survival Bible and Jim was eager to follow it to the "T".

To counterbalance this, Hilda keeps butting in with her trivial chit-chat about whether he wants sausages or beefburgers and mash or chips for his tea, how she doesn't want him using her best cushions for the shelter and how he mustn't get paint on her nice curtains

The best man for the job is a woman..

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Hahaha, that is true. I guess that is a valid argument, and the dialogue is the only thing that bothered me throughout the film, because of all the information being used.

I wish they had already figured that the television/radio/phones would not be working on account of the blast, I feel the writer made them seem too simple even for old folk.

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Believe it or not, Raymond loosely based Jim and Hilda on his own parents as seen in the extra features. Personally I found that to be slightly offensive! But he maintained they were pretty old-skool simple folk and likely to have been reliant on the directive. I'd like to think though that they weren't that naive given that Raymond is clearly a talented writer! I got the impression he loved his parents so maybe he was just using a bit of tongue-in-cheek humour.

But I can understand your frustration in that there were a great many referrals to the directive from the character Jim. I guess it was just a way of conveying to the audience what the manual contained so that by contrast we can see how they failed to actually adhere to even the most basic requirement which was to stay in the shelter for a designated period of time, not for Hilda to crawl out to inspect the mess and for Jim to expect fresh running water to come out of the taps. Putting the TV on was a bit of a no-brainer too

The best man for the job is a woman..

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They were from a pamphlet titled Protect and Survive. It was later turned into radio instructions and tv instructions.

Search youtube the whole tv presentation is on there. It even instructs you on how to properly garbage bag your dead relatives so they can be ided by gov't authorities for proper disposal.

As well as to how handle the issue of *beep* in a bucket.

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