Winds of Change (Video)

Winds of Change is a training film produced by the Royal Corps of Signals, which consists of a montage of unpleasant imagery such as decapitations, death by ocular trauma, evisceration, executions and torture. The constant background music is the song Wind of Change by the German band Scorpions, which seems somewhat incongruous with the violent action(see below). The distressing imagery follows one or two specific themes and many of the images are drawn from a Small number of common sources, such as documentary footage of the Yugoslav Wars, Taleban executions, and the Sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway. Footage of bacteria under a microscope is intended to suggest Anthrax and biological warfare. The overall effect is reminiscent of the Ludovico technique.

The use of the song wind of change is possibly in reference to the speech by Harold Macmillan in the South African Parliament in 1960 on decolonisation in Africa. The term is used here to refer to the break up of the colonial blocks, particularly in Africa and the wars that have occurred between and within the resultant nation states.

Another possibility is that it's use in this context is intended to remind the audience that violence has not ended with the end of the cold war (the original subject of the song), and also it is meant to suggest that the role of the British Army is to work for a better world and fight the kind of violence depicted in the video, though paradoxically, also using violence.

See also

• Wind of Change video on YouTube. Note that this video contains graphic and potentially disturbing images.