Windtalkers has a beautiful concept, and
I will admit that the Navajo wind talkers are some of the
most miraculous people to ever live; but there is hardly
any wind talking in the film. It ends up being a shoot-em-up
violent massacre of blood without a personality or meaning
of its own. Despite some visually stunning special
effects, a great performance by Nicholas Cage, and some
beautiful direction and cinematography; there is no hard,
cold material to the picture. It accomplishes quite a bit,
but rarely has the expected amount of substance that it
says it has.
The story is about the Navajo code
talkers who developed a code that was never broken during
WWII. They decided to help the Americans fight during the
battle against
Japan
on an island right off of the Japanese backcountry. The
story specifically follows two partners, one a veteran
warrior, and the other a frightened, rookie Navajo. The
first is Joe Enders (Nicholas Cage), who stops at nothing
to save his country, and becomes the highest ranked
soldier in the American militia as the war progresses. His
partner is Ben Yahzee (Adam Beach), a Navajo code talker
who is going to war for the first time. Joe dislikes Ben
at first, but then starts to warm up to him when he boosts
the courage level of the virgin soldier. Both Cage and
Beach put on great performances, which help the film; they
deserve better material.
The direction, by John Woo, is
simply inspiring. The beautifully looking special effects,
tremendous aerial shots, and fabulously moving battle
sequences allow me to name him one of the best directors
in today’s movie business. The sound editing department
also did wonderfully, and should win an Academy Award for
their masterful work. Everything is dead on in
Windtalkers, except for the absolutely wretched
screenplay, which drags the film down in everyway
possible. Most everything is beautiful to watch, but if
you listen to the dialogue alone (though there isn’t much
of it), you will find the film to be nothing short of a
disaster. I want to brutally beat John Rice and Joe
Batteer, they destroyed some material that could’ve been
worthy of a “Best Picture” award if it had been written
properly.
There was one scene that I liked
in particular, and that was when it showed the Navajo
training to become code talkers. The teacher would say
something like “Fire” and the students would be respond by
saying “Big light,” code words for the actual tern; in the
Navajo language. They developed a whole vocabulary full of
this code, and learned to talk through their flute-like
instruments; which is really quite amazing. As discussed
before, this was one of the few scenes that utilized “wind
talking”, I’m not even sure that the entire movie deserves
to be called Windtalkers, because it is so
misleading; there is hardly anything of what the title
commends. The interesting Navajo code was a treat to
watch, and I have no idea why they didn’t use it more
often in the flick.
Windtalkers is a good
battle picture, but not a good movie. The acting,
direction, and production work; but the screenplay is the
most hideous mess I’ve seen in a long time. If you look at
a film in terms of its visuals and don’t place a lot of
thought into the dialogue, you’ll probably enjoy it; but
otherwise you won’t. My best recommendation is to rent it,
like I did, because it just isn’t enough to spend the full
$8.50 on to see on the big screen.
-Danny, Bucket Reviews