Movies

Long ago in a land far away—so several decades ago—one of the wind energy forums I haunted had a topic of “Movie Madness.”

It was rare then to see modern wind turbines—or even old ones–in the movies. Then came Rain Man and the famous (to us at least) scene of Dustin Hoffman driving down Indian Ave. outside Palm Springs with a farm of Enertech E44s spinning merrily. The dam soon broke.

We would eventually see wind turbines as background for TV advertisements often promoting new cars and much more.

Moon-spinners: The Movie and its Windmill

Since those days, I keep my eye on the topic for my cultural icon pages and Nancy, my wife, came across a YouTube.com clip of Disney’s Moon-spinners.

I’d never seen the movie so it was a revelation. It contains some of my favorite materials: a folk musicologist, the Greek Islands (in this case Crete) and windmills—lots of them.

Filmed on location in the village of Elounda, fans of the movie have ventured there to trace the footsteps of Walt Disney and his stars.

In short, the bad guy ties up the heroine, Haley Mills, in a Cretan windmill of course and the windmill plays a crucial part in the plot.

Somewhat hokey by today’s standards, the film does show the windmill turning with close up shots of the rotor’s spars and their sails. Take a look.

Scene-from-Moon-Spinners-02
The villain in search of our heroine in the Moon-Spinners. Cretain sail windmills in the background.

Rain Man

Here’s a clip of Tom Cruise cruising down Indian Ave. outside Palm Springs when he makes a U-turn in front of a phalanx of spinning Enertech E44s on the Whitewater Wash. The Enertechs are long gone but there are still hundreds if not thousands of wind turbines on the Whitewater Wash. Micons and a whole host of other wind turbines in the background.

Screenshot 2023-09-08 at 11-22-09 rainman windmill scene - Google Search
Clip from Rain Man with Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman

Frankenstein–The Movie

The 1931 movie Frankenstein starring Boris Karloff has a dramatic final scene that has always stuck in my mind. The monster has been found hiding in a windmill by an angry mob. Dr. Frankenstein tries to escape the monsters grip, a fight ensues, and the monster flings Dr. Frankenstein through the air whereupon he lands on one of the windmill’s turning blades. The windmill blade brakes his fall and Dr. Frankenstein lands alive on the ground. The mob takes him to town while gendarmes torch the windmill. The monster is consumed in the flames–or so we’re led to believe.

If I remember correctly, there is no such scene in Mary Shelley’s 1918 novel. The windmill was a dramatic Hollywood addition that adds to the lore of windmills in the movies.

The Black Windmill

The Black Windmill is a Michael Cane cold-war thriller that has little to do with windmills. Presumably the plot is built around the kidnapping of two boys near two windmills in Southern England.

Screenshot 2023-09-08 at 12-00-09 The Black Windmill (1974) ORIGINAL TRAILER