Windtalkers Review
by Laura Clifford (laura AT reelingreviews DOT com)June 13th, 2002
WINDTALKERS
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In 1942 hundreds of American Navajos were recruited to outwit Japanese code breakers by transmitting in a new cipher based on their native language. Marines were assigned to protect these men for two reasons - some U.S. soldiers
mistook the Navajos for the Japanese enemy and the code they carried was precious cargo. Two vastly different men, Sergeant Joe Enders (Nicolas Cage) and Ox Anderson (Christian Slater), shepherd Ben Yahzee (Adam Beach, "Smoke Signals") and Charlie Whitehorse (Roger Willie) through the Battle of Saipan in director John Woo's "Windtalkers."
Producers Alison Rosenzweig and Tracie Graham made a unique discovery with the little known tale of the Navajo code talkers, but as they developed the film, bringing on board stylish action director John Woo and his former Oscar winning star Nicolas Cage, the code talking nucleus got lost under a barrage of
war film cliches.
Joe Enders is tortured by survivor's guilt after following orders caused him to lose his men on the Solomon Islands. A kindly nurse (Francis O'Connor, "The Importance of Being Earnest") becomes inexplicably attracted to the despondent man and helps him rejoin the war by tricking an ear doctor during a hearing exam. Screenwriters John Rice and Joe Batteer instill early fear in the audience by inviting comparison to "Pearl Harbor," where Kate Beckinsdale helped Ben Affleck through an eye exam.
The Navajo code is almost completely dismissed after Ben and Charlie's friendly
competition is displayed by them both answering an instructor's question in class (we learn a tank becomes a tortoise in Navajo). They're greeted by their
unit in Hawaii with about as much enthusiasm as the two black soldiers in "Hart's War," although Ox tries to integrate them into a poker game. Ox tries to engage Joe in a conversation about the ramifications of their orders to 'protect the code at any cost,' but Joe's agenda appears to be all about joining his lost men.
Rice and Batteer ("Blown Away") succeed in gradually developing a friendship between Enders and Yahzee based on Yahzee's spiritual understanding of Enders's
haunting and Enders' admiration for Yahzee's soldiering, although they cheat in two big ways when Enders must face following his orders. While the effectiveness of the code is shown, most spectacularly when used to redirect friendly fire, the focus is put on the coordinates sent rather than the language used to relay them. They fill out their squad with a group of one-dimensional WWII issue soldiers. Chick (Noah Emmerich, "Frequency") is the bigot who will have his eyes opened. Pappas (Mark Ruffalo, "You Can Count
On Me") is the second generation Greek who relates more to his heritage and family run business than this crazy war. Harrigan (Brian Van Holt, "Black Hawk Down") is the flamethrower who gives chocolate to kids. Nellie (Martin Henderson) worries about his wife back home and tries to give Pappas his wedding band 'should anything happen to him.' Squad leader Hjelmstad (Peter Stormare, "Chocolat") is a Scandinavian immigrant whose accent is jarring.
Cage gets the tortured heroic act down, but there's little else to the character. Adam Beach seems overwhelmed in this big commercial film, making large emotional shifts unconvincingly. He does get Yahzee's naivety across, though, and slips a "Smoke Signals'" fried bread joke in. More convincing is non actor Roger Willie who gives Charlie Whitehorse a calm center. Slater, who admittedly has an easier role than Cage, is a natural as the kindly liberal who bonds with Whitehorse through music.
Woo effectively shows the horrors of war, but the constant explosions lose their impact over time. With no gun doubling up and Cage resisting the urge to turn into Travolta, "Windtalkers" is the least identifiable of Woo's films (despite a church drawn in salt and some pelicans subbing for doves).
The resurrection of the WWII movie which began with "Saving Private Ryan" is on its last legs. While "Windtalkers" is technically sound (those CGI fighter planes notwithstanding), I'm beginning to react to the "Combat" formula with nothing but apathy.
C+
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