Extras:
Windtalkers Bravo Special, Actor's Boot Camp, Fly on the Set Diaries,
Behind the scenes Photo Gallery, Two Audio Commentaries
Director:
John Woo
(Windtalkers)
Producers:
Terrence Change, Tracie Graham-Rice, Alison R. Rosenzweig and John Woo
Screenplay:
John Rice and Joe Batteer
Music :
James Horner
Cast :
Sgt. Joe Enders: Nicolas Cage
Pvt. Ben Yahzee: Adam Beach
Hjelmstad: Peter Stormare
Chick: Noah Emmerich
Pappas: Mark Ruffalo
Harrigan: Brian Van Holt
Nellie: Martin Henderson
Pvt. Charlie Whitehorse: Roger Willie
Rita: Frances O'Connor
Ox Henderson: Christian Slater
Major Mellitz: Jason Isaacs
It's Saipan, 1943 and it's time for another film about the Second
World War,
the difference about Windtalkers being that it centres on the
Navajo Indians' ability to talk to each other in a special code, the only kind
of code that the Japanese won't pick up on in a hurry, thus giving the Americans
the upper hand in battle.
This is good news for Sgt. Joe Enders (Nicolas Cage) who lost all of his
men in their last mission, the words of one dying man shouting "Goddamn, you
Joe Enders!" still ringing in his ears, and that's not their only problem
because the altercation at the scene caused serious damage to his hearing.
His next outing is to team up with Ox Henderson (Christian Slater) and
ensure two of the Navajo stay alive long enough to transmit enough code back
to base so that success is the outcome.
Woo pulls out the usual traditions of big explosions, scenic views across
inviting landscapes, bullet-ballets and the gun-to-gun moment, here as one of
the Navajo war trainees, Pvt. Ben Yahzee (Adam Beach) finds
himself against an enemy and is too scared to face up to reality.
However, while it's a perfectly watchable movie, it's far from essential as
we've come across better WWII films with
Saving Private Ryan
and
Platoon,
both of which served up characters that were memorable.
The rest of the cast includes the underused Peter Stormare, Jason Isaacs,
as well as Frances O'Connor as Rita, nurse and potential love interest
for Cage. I've also always got time for Christian Slater in a film and it's
high time he was leading more again.
Filmed and presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen, I have no complaints
with the picture. Crisp and clear with subtle light during nighttime scenes
and striking boldness in the bright daytime.
Action scenes make for great listening in Dolby Digital 5.1, while James
Horner's score lilts along even in the quietest moments.
Nothing too outstand in the extras dept. They begin with a Windtalkers
Bravo Special (11 mins) as non-anamorphic clips of the film are interspersed
with chat from the principal cast and crew. The film clips are in their original
2.35:1 ratio and the rest of the on-set footage is non-anamorphic 16;9.
In order to train the cast up fully, it was felt they should go on an
Actor's Boot Camp (15 mins). Shot in 4:3, John Woo wanted accuracy
in all aspects of his film and, in August 2000, used this time to teach them
military tactics used in 1944 during the Marine invasion of Saipan. It's
not quite Full Metal Jacket.
There are four Fly on the Set Diaries (totalling 23½ mins), in which
shows behind-the-scenes footage on how cerain sections were made, namely
"The Marine March on Saipan", the use of the "Bazooka" in battle, when war
goes wrong in "Friendly Fire" and the "Village Ambush" towards the end of the
film. All these diaries are in 16:9 non-anamorphic, but surely there are
anamorphic versions available?
You'll flick through the 35-strong Behind the scenes Photo Gallery once
and the supplements conclude with Two Audio Commentaries, one from
Nicolas Cage and Christian Slater, the ohter from Roger Willie
and Navajo Code Talker Albert Smith.
There are the usual 32 chapters to the movie for a big MGM title, dialogue comes
in Dolby Digital 5.1 for English and Russian, with subtitles in English and Czech.
The main menu features some animation and a looped piece of music from the film,
while the rest are static and silent.
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
