Whistle Down the Wind

An absolute gem of a movie, that will appeal to both the religious, & atheists alike, since it intelligently sides with neither side. WDTW is a beautifully crafted study in "belief", faith and innocence.

Reminiscent of Ken Loach's 1969 film Kes (although the two are very different films) in so much that it accurately portrays a time & place, by using genuine locals as a supporting cast, thus giving a true sense of authenticity because of the genuine regional accents.

Little Alan Barnes's natural lancashire dialect is a pure delight in the opening scene with "The sally army lady", and his loss of "faith" in "Jesus" ("T' aint Jesus, its just some fellah") is a poignant counterpoint to Mills's stoic acceptance of the fugitive hiding in the family barn as her saviour.

Highly recommended viewing.

Produced by Sir Richard Attenborough (Jurassic Park), and written by Lady Mills (wife of Sir John, a veteran British actor), this is a charming look at childhood, through the eyes of three children, in the early 60`s. An injured, escaped murderer seeks refuge in their barn (Alan Bates), the kids find him, and believe hes Jesus...(when they ask who he is, he mutters `Jesus Christ!`). The script is so innocent, we were these children not so long ago, theres a little of them in all of us.. Hayley Mills (daughter of Sir John Mills, and the star of many Disney movies), stars as Cathy, the eldest of the kids, barely in her teens. Bernard Lee (`M` in countless James Bond movies), plays the father of the family... What makes it so good, is the way the kids converse with each other, their innocence of thinking that a holy figure has come to live in their barn, of all places!! It doesn`t mean to be funny, but it is. Its all too light hearted to be anything else..Just a wonderful, very little known movie.

Hayley Mills excels in this understated, underrated movie juxtaposing the sordid criminal world (Alan Bates as a murderer on the run) with the innocence of children. Cleverly designed, perfectly acted (by all the children as well as the adults), pithily appropriate screenplay, believable accents (the setting is the Yorkshire moors in England), and a well-balanced, carefully planned production all combine to produce a mesmerising gem of a film. Already a star, Hayley Mills proved she was not just a pretty face and built on her impressive performance in Tiger Bay to create a moving character of budding adolescence, still trapped in childhood innocence and belief. The period of the early sixties is neatly conveyed, and Hayley Mills as Cathy creates a metaphor for the deeper layer of the film's message of the increasing social awareness and diminishing religious belief (despite the traditional Sunday School attitudes and practices) which was gradually bringing about the social change of Britain in the sixties. The story is well told, the drama is dynamic, the actors do a marvellous job and the film certainly deserves to be better known, if not least because it's an early example of Richard Attenborough's production skills.

The original story, before Andrew Lloyd-Webber americanised it (and ruined it, IMO), was written by Hayley Mills' mother, Mary Hayley Bell, and starred Hayley as a Northern girl who thinks she finds Jesus Christ returned to Earth and living in her father's barn. In fact the man is a convict on the run (beautifully played by Alan Bates, one of his best early roles).

The girl and her sister and little brother (Alan Barnes, a superb performance) cosset the man and plot to keep him secret from the adults, because of what happened to him 'last time'. The man in turn is bewildered by the increasing adultation and attention of the neighbouring kids.

One of the strongest points of the story, aside from the contention that religion really couldn't cope with the return of Christ, is the developing attraction between the pre-teen Mills and Bates. This is understated but unmistakable, and owes a lot to Hayley's talent when she was a child actress. The music by Matthew Arnold is superb and Bryan Forbes' direction is sympathetic and cleverly done.

Perhaps the final symbolism is overdone but 'Whistle' is an excellent film that lingers long in the memory.

Adolescent English farm-girl discovers an escaped, bearded convict sleeping in the family barn and thinks he's Jesus. Young Kathy needs to believe this, even after the police come to cart him away. He even drops a picture of the Savior, which seems to symbolize not only the prisoner's fall from grace but one more sign for Kathy that, yes, this mysterious man might be Him. "Whistle Down the Wind" is a hard-shelled movie that says we lose hope and faith as we mature--which isn't an original idea for a film, but the cynical way this is presented catches you off-guard. One little boy numbers the eggs he has has eaten (a mixture of his bemusement and his feeling of monotony), one little girl vows to keep counting until Kathy comes out of the barn. These children need to believe too, of course, but they're much more raw than Kathy; they strip ideas down to the basics. Kathy believes blindly. It's a touching character, the centerpiece of the film, and I was enchanted by Hayley Mills' open face and yearning smile. The other youngsters are also remarkable. If the film doesn't offer us fanciful answers, it does provide playful bits of visual humor. Even the rhythm of the kids' words is comical (and the way they relate to one another seems very natural). The film gives away nothing without an eternal struggle, and at the end there is no clear answer. I believe the next day would become routine for the children, they would go back to their basics. But Kathy has changed, and the convict has as well. Their lives intersected for a moment, and, though others became involved, they both learned something from the other about the need to believe. ***1/2 from ****