On W List of Movie Reviews
(For optimum viewing, adjust the zoom level of your browser to 125%.)
Windtalkers (2002)
Rate:
4
Viewed:
2/24
2/24:
Talk about introducing a premise and then failing to make the most use of it.
That's what happened in Windtalkers. It was supposed to be about the Navajo code talkers, but unbelievably, they got lost
in the shuffle when a white guy by the name of Nicolas Cage took over to be a war god. For two and half hours, it's been a
nonstop series of fighting with an occasional break for serious acting. What a crazy formula.
So, yes...it's over for John Woo. He's the Michael Cimino of action movies. The man doesn't know when enough is enough. Two
or three action scenes from him are usually impressive, but there are tons of them in Windtalkers, ultimately
boring me to death. There's no point to any of them because the battle situations are never explained.
However little it's shown, the acting is fine. Nicolas Cage starts out okay but becomes hard to believe over time. The movie was
going to end when his character died. Everything he did in the war would've gotten him over fifty Congressional Medals of Honor. In
other words, it's impossible. Adam Beach does what he can to be likeable but falls into the trap of being clichéd for an
American Indian.
By the way, I read a book on this subject. The Navajo code talkers, which numbered almost 400, were trained to learn every
form of radio communication in existence that were used by the Marines including Morse code. The problem is that the Japanese
broke every one of them because they came to the United States to learn as much as they could including many Indian languages
that were actually used to transmit radio messages during WWI. But this Navajo language escaped their attention. Hence, the Marines
decided to keep it top-secret which went unbroken for decades. As a matter of fact, it's among the hardest languages to learn.
For the job well-done, no Navajo code talker was ever promoted above the rank of corporal or given a single medal during the war.
All in all, I've never seen a WWII picture that's so ridiculous like Windtalkers.