Extras:
Theatrical/Teaser Trailer & DVD Production Credits
Director:
John Woo
(M:I-2)
Screenplay:
John Rice & John Batteer
Cast:
Sgt Enders: Nicolas Cage
Prvt Yahzee: Adam Beach
Sgt Hjelmstad: Peter Stormare
Nurse Swelton: Francis O'Connor
Sgt Henderson: Christian Slater
Major Mellitz: Jason Isaacs
Cpl Rogers: Noah Emmerich
Pappas: Mark Ruffalo
Harrigan: Brian Van Holt
Nellie: Martin Henderson
Prvt Whitehorse: Roger Willie
John Woo is having a career rollercoaster-ride in Hollywood.
The legendary Hong Kong director responsible for such visceral thrills such
as Hard Boiled" came to the USA with the weak
Hard Target,
then proceeded onto the mildly better
Broken Arrow,
before hitting the big-time with the high-octane Face/Off, then fell
back into mediocrity Tom Cruise sequel
Mission: Impossible 2.
Now comes Windtalkers, which should have been a return to form,
but Woo's style is left looking clichéd and old-fashioned in a post-Matrix
world where the realities of war have also been brutally rammed home by
Saving Private Ryan
and
Black Hawk Down.
Windtalkers reveals the admittedly interesting fact that the Navajo
Indian language was used during World War II by the United States as a
code against Japanese enemy forces.
Nicola Cage (a Woo favourite after "Face/Off") plays Sgt Enders, a
war-weary marine injured in a previous battle, who bluffs his way back
into service. Enders is charged with protecting young Navajo code-talker
Yahzee - with orders to kill Yahzee in the event he falls into enemy
hands... to protect the code.
So, a palm-rubbingly enticing set-up is born. Sadly, the premise behind
Windtalkers is the only original thing it brings to the "war movie"
genre. Director Woo has a style that perfectly suits contemporary
violence, but his technique looks unsuited to a period piece set in the
40s. Thankfully Woo reigns in his more clichéd hallmarks (although
slow-motion and birds do make an appearance!), but it isn't enough to
make an audience take Windtalkers seriously.
James Horner's bombastic music score plays annoyingly over most of the
action scenes, totally destroying any whiff of reality audiences will be
struggling to find. Extras seem to run into bullets on purpose, actors
seem able to predict where Japanese soldiers will spring from as they
wheel their, it's all very... staged. Stagnant. There's no vitality and
raw energy on display - this is a war film that simply goes through the
motions.
The screenplay by John Rice and John Batteer is riddled with clichés and
steals from far greater war movies. The central focus of the movie is on
the characters of Enders and Yahzee, yet the blooming of their
friendship is clumsy and unbelievable throughout. By the end of the
movie, when the audience should really care for these men... we don't.
They're just two-dimensional grunts stuck in a formulaic movie with a
below-par script to read from.
Nicolas Cage puts on his best angst-filled expression and is
occasionally quite good, but the screenplay fails to give him anything
meaty to chew on. For the most part he drifts through the movie with an
annoyed expression, or barks orders to subordinates through the
rat-a-tat of gunfire.
Adam Beach (Private Yahzee) is perhaps the real star, bringing an
earnest humanity and believability to the young Navajo soldier. Unlike
Cage, Beach manages to find some subtleties in the script to latch onto,
but one good performance is worth nothing in a movie with a focus on a
friendship between two men.
Christian Slater ("Broken Arrow") and the rest of the supporting cast
make little impact on proceedings. Noah Emmerich plays a stereotyped
racist bigot who considers Navajo's just as bad as 'The Japs', in a role
that lacks originality but at least has some dramatic punch to
occasionally.
The special-effects are generally quite good, but Woo's disregard for
CGI reduces the impact some scenes could have had. Woo is forced to
utilize CGI planes in a few short sequences, but uses footage of real US
warships in the movie - and the results are embarrassingly obvious cuts
between pristine celluloid and grainy archive tape.
Overall, I enjoyed "Windtalkers" on a very basic level. There are a few
nice sequences, the premise is intriguing and there's a nice performance
from Adam Beach. But, this is a by-the-numbers production that mainly
fails because of a weak plot, a tired performance from Cage and a wrong
choice of director.
Windtalkers Region 1 comes in an Amoray case with some excellent
artwork (hell, the front cover could have become iconic if the film was
any good!).
The animated menus are quite nicely designed - very fast loading, simple
and effective shots from the movie in a narrow bar flanked by the
sub-menu buttons. Very good.
The movie's 2.40:1 widescreen picture is anamorphic with no visible
grain or damage to the print. Colours are lively and dark sequences are
bewitchingly deep, but there are occasional instances of smearing in
daylight scenes. But overall a great transfer.
The movie also comes in a Full-Screen version (on the reverse of the
DVD-18 disk), which is just as vibrant - but ridiculously cropped. Come
on, if you have DVD people should have really invested in a widescreen
TV by now, or just "suffer" the 'black bars' on your 4:3 TV screen...
The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is quite involving in chunks, but the overall
effect is lacking. Unlike other war films you never feel like you're in
the thick of the action throughout the movie, just for small moments
when John Woo starts a particular action sequence. Standout moments
generally involve the CGI airplane flyovers, bomb explosions and the
obligatory gunfire. Dialogue is audible and strong throughout the movie.
Aaaaah! Like the Region 1 release of "Black Hawk Down", the movie comes
with practically no extra features. We just have the Teaser Trailer and
Theatrical Trailer (very good), with some additional trailers to
publicize the release of "Die Another Day" and the James Bond DVD
collection. Oh, and a DVD Production Credits list. Wow...
A total abomination. No doubt a 'Special Edition' is being worked on
already for a late-2002/early-2003 release, so if you can wait - I'd
advise it (DVDfeverfever.co.uk Ed: "...or, perhaps like
Black Hawk Down,
the Region 2 DVD will have all the necessaries that the Region 1 disc missed
out on?")
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
