Windtalkers (2002)

Starring: Nicolas Cage, Christian Slater, Adam Beach
Director: John Woo

Rating: R

Studio: MGM

Review Posted: 6.15.02

Spoilers: Minor

Rating: 3/4

By Sara M. Fetters.

I re-watched John Woo’s Bullet in the Head again last night, the director’s last cinematic foray into war, and was struck once more by the hefty moral template he served up. I was also left in awe at the nervy audacity of the work; the way Woo used a Douglas Sirk-like veil of melodrama to paint his story of youth angst and social upheaval. Mesmerizing stuff, but decidedly not everyone’s cup of tea.

I watched this Hong Kong classic – one of the last the esteemed action auteur made before bringing his directorial skill to the United States – after viewing his epic WWII slaughter fest Windtalkers. It’s Woo’s first foray outside the slick, action filled jungle in regards to his US work, and if it doesn’t quite have the elegant power and redemptive grace of its Hong Kong brethren, it is still a startling piece of work.

Beginning in 1942, about 400 Navajo men were assigned to the Marine’s elite “Code Talker” unit. Up until that point of the war, the Japanese had broken every code that the military had thrown at them. The unique dialects of the Navajo tongue, however, stymied the enemy soldiers, and they were considered of such vital importance to the war effort that each code talker was assigned their own Marine bodyguard.

It is a fascinating set up for a film and plays directly into Woo’s favorite themes of brotherhood and betrayal amongst men. And, in the case of Windtalkers, he’s constructed his film around the conceit that the code is far more important than the lives of those that know it. Meaning – Marines who are sworn to protect the lives of their comrades above all else are ordered to take the life of a fellow soldier if the need arises.

And it is just that moral question that haunts Marine Jo Enders (Cage). He’s besieged by the memories of a platoon decimated before him and at his command to hold there ground in the face of over whelming enemy fire. Badly wounded and a shell of what he was, he’s now faced with the dilemma of having to maybe take the life of another fellow Marine – this time much more directly.

That Marine is Ben Yahzee (Beach), a smiling, eager-to-please and energetic soldier slowly crushed as he realizes the unsubtly rampant racism around him is not only directed at the Japanese army, but also at himself and his comrades. But, in this John Ford-ish world of battle and heroism, subtly is definitely a construct in short supply.

And that is part of the problem with Windtalkers at times. The cliché’s in Joe Batteer and John Rice’s script come fast and furious. There are the usual suspects; the outwardly racist squad member (Noah Emmerich), the weary captain (Peter Stormare) and the ahead-of-his-time good-hearted fellow bodyguard (Slater). It’s a huge bluster of machismo and old-fashioned bravado, but gosh darn it if it doesn’t work most of time.

Credit Woo for bringing out the best in Cage. His shell-shocked Enders is some of the best work he’s done in years, easily since his demented turn in Bringing Out the Dead. Beach, the gifted young star of Smoke Signals, is equally good in the difficult role of Yahzee. The script constantly makes a saint out of the character, so give Beach full credit for keeping him human.

It’s the director’s show, however, and Woo once again showcases his skill. The Battle of Saipan in Windtalkers is at once elegiac and devastating; poetic and blood curdling. It’s masterfully done, but leave it to a director like Woo to never lose sight of the moral complexities at the film’s core. While not perfection, Windtalkers is still one heck of a grand war movie.

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