Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Cage + Woo = Explosive Combo
John Woo goes to war in "Windtalkers," a movie based on a fascinating footnote to World War II. During the combat in the Pacific, the Marines used Navaho "code talkers," who confounded the Japanese by relaying information in their native language, a complex spoken tongue with which few outsiders were familiar. The device proved so successful that the military kept it a secret until the late 1960s, in case they ever needed to use it again. In the movie, Nicolas Cage plays Joe Enders, a Marine sergeant shattered by the loss of his entire squad in combat. Assigned to "baby-sit" (his words) Ben Yahzee (Adam Beach), a newly recruited Navaho code talker, he's told to protect the code at any cost. Translation: Should Ben fall into enemy hands, Joe is to kill him. Unlike another Marine bodyguard, played by Christian Slater, who befriends his charge (Roger Willie), Joe chooses to distance himself from Ben. That way it will be easier to follow orders. Yet it was following orders that caused the massacre of his men. Showing his medal to Ben, Joe says ruefully, "I got this for not dying. The 15 men with me got it for dying." Woo is clearly interested in this story. Joe's inner conflicts are compelling; so is the changeable nature of his relationship with Ben. One minute, he's trying to avoid sitting with him during a lunch break; the next, he's pulling Ben out of enemy fire. Yet Woo, a legendary director of hyperbolic action films (more than a dozen in Hong Kong; "Face/Off" and "Mission: Impossible 2" in the United States), brings his unique wizardry to the war scenes. "Windtalkers" may be wrapped around the code talker phenomenon, but at heart it's every bit as much of a World War II flick as "Saving Private Ryan" or "The Sands of Iwo Jima." Woo's method of capturing the mayhem and chaos of combat is different from Steven Spielberg's, yet both are masters of kinetic filmmaking. It's as if they were born with an extra visual/editing gene. In showing us the battle of Saipan, Woo uses everything from sweeping panoramas to vertiginous crane shots to blood 'n' guts close-ups (including a startlingly original point-of-view shot). These jacked-up battle scenes have an interesting side effect: They help us through the non-action scenes. Much of "Windtalkers" is like a '50s war picture, a reflection of Woo's admitted infatuation with the Hollywood movies of his youth. His characters are out of Pauline Kael's so-called bomber-crew cast list: the city guy, the country guy, the starry-eyed rookie, the cynical veteran, etc. What Woo does so magnificently is to wed the brusquely brilliant B-movie clichés of a Sam Fuller flick with the pyrotechnic expertise of Hollywood, circa 2002. "Windtalkers" will rightly bring attention to Beach and Willie; both have a distinct, camera-friendly appeal. But the movie's real beneficiary is Cage, who's found a way to bring parts of his Oscar-winning "Leaving Las Vegas" persona to a completely different kind of role. He's the alienated cynic who's also very good at what soldiers are supposed to be good at: killing people. Joe doesn't believe in anything anymore, yet he aches to believe in something - the idea of dying with honor, perhaps, or finding a role that rings true within the concept of wartime heroism. At times, Cage has the clear-eyed, ironic battle fatigue of William Holden, another actor often cast in roles that revealed the disappointed idealist behind the world-weary cynic. "Windtalkers" will probably disappoint anyone looking for an in-depth look at the code talkers; and it could turn off those unwilling to work with its retro dialogue and characters. Still, it's difficult to resist Woo's explosive artistry and Cage's reluctant hero. For anyone in the mood for an unusual kind of war movie, "Windtalkers" is talking your language.
Rating:  - Woo Me.
The name John Woo and the words action/thriller are synonymous. I would never say that a movie battle scene was good, but I will say that the battle scenes in "Windtalkers" were excellent. Very real. Very terrifying.Combining John Woo with Nick Cage was a stroke of genius. If you saw either Face Off or ConAir, which weren't bad, you will quickly see that Mr. Cage may have given his best in this film. I was impressed. I was equally empressed with Adam Beach's preformance. His constant smile gave an almost calming effect to that calamity we call, war. The story is based on a truth. The Marines did enlist Navajo Indians to radio code using their own language. They were called "codetalkers." In this film Nick Cage is assigned to protect the Navajo codetalker and to protect the code. He is in a difficult position. Beach's character is totally likeable. But if Nicholas Cage, as Joe Enders, becomes to attached to Adam Beach, as Ben Yahzee, should Ben be captured, Joe will find it difficult to complete his assingment, which is to kill Ben. Music by James "Titanic" Horner, direction by John Woo, and solid preformances by Nicholas Cage and Adam Beach make "Windtalkers" one very well done movie.
Rating: - Emotionally charged WWII film
WINDTALKERS is one of the best of the recent WWII movies filmed over the past few years. It is a multi-layered and multi-faceted tale told visually through incredible images enhanced with armor piercing sound effects. The dialogue really has to take a back seat to this simple tale of men and their survival because the images of the land, the faces and the carnage tell it all. This film is named WINDTALKERS but the film does not really focus on the code developed by the Navajo Marines. DirectorRaoul Walsh had peripherally addressed the Navajo code in 1955 with his film BATTLE CRY with Felix Noriego as Marine Crazy Horse where we saw Japanese operators baffled while listening in on radio and field-telephone transmissions. Director John Woo, as did Raoul Walsh, decides to focus his attention on the men and their diverse backgrounds and what makes them Marines. However, Woo narrows his focus on the relationship between a war-weary, shell-shocked and enigmatic Marine sergeant (Nicolas Cage) and a good-natured naive Navajo recruit (Adam Beach) assigned to him. Beach can't understand the actions or behavior of loner Cage's intensity for killing and bloodshed but learns eventually that if you survive you then increase your chances of having your comrades survive. Woo is a director noted for action and WINDTALKERS contains some of the most frenetically staged sequences ever filmed. These sequences reminded me of some of Sam Peckinpah's cathartic work from THE WILD BUNCH, the montages of combat maelstrom of his CROSS OF IRON and the intensity of the intimate fighting of combatants from Edward Zwick's Civil War epic GLORY. This is not action for the sake of action that can be easily labeled on John Woo. Woo is making a statement that all this carnage can be addictive yet simultaneously it usually creates and strengthens intimate camaraderie. But you really can never afford to be close to any of your buddies and this is a highly moral conflict. Is battle weary hardness a symptom or a mechanism to survive? This is the price of defending the ideals that we hold so dear. This is a very subtle and great film that can be easily glossed right over for its true meaning and realization.
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