Expressions // Reason To Believe: Whistle Down The Wind
The first time I saw Brian Forbes’s Whistle Down the Wind when I was about 14, I briefly entertained the idea that I’d had some ground-breaking epiphany about the film’s religious overtones – something hitherto unaddressed in any criticism, some PhD-worthy proposition about “obscure Biblical parallels”. I realise now – in fact, I likely realised not long after said “epiphany” – that this wasn’t quite the perceptive take I thought it was, not least because, yes, it has actually been discussed at length in criticism, but also because the film itself goes to great lengths to ensure we’ve grasped its allusions; in short, to render those allusions anything but “obscure”. From reimaginings of Peter’s denial, the Last Supper, and the crucifixion, to the playful interweaving of John Henry Hopkins Jr.’s “We Three Kings” in the score, one need hardly be a theology student to recognise its many glaring references to the New Testament.
Thirty-three years after the film was released, a journalist for The Independent wrote one of a series of ‘Location Hunters’ articles about the enduring popularity of the village of Downham and the surrounding areas in which filming took place. In his article he describes the film as something of a ‘slightly cringe-making, saccharine juvenile classic’. I concur that it is indeed a juvenile classic, but given that this is one of my favourite films of all time, I take issue with any accusation of cringe-worthiness. I agree that it likely treads a very fine line – any film that dares to directly confront the idea of Jesus’s return and feature children in the lead roles must surely risk the charge of sanctimony – but through a combination of exceptional casting, a haunting, poignant score, and brilliant, brooding cinematography, it stops short well short of mawkishness and didacticism, and arrives instead at sheer brilliance.
