Review of Windtalkers (2002) by Deborah W — 20 Feb 2012

This soulless and empty war film does not lack action... there is plenty of it, as well as there are plenty of historical inaccuracies... Directed by John Woo with Nicolas Cage and Christian Slater as stars a film about two US Marine sergeants assigned to protect Navajo code talkers (Adam Beach and Roger Willie) in Saipan during World War II is watchable, but at the end you'll ask yourself, "Why did I watch this?" No real deal in it! The only reason could be my interest in history and anthropology... Navajo was an attractive choice for code use because only few people outside the Navajo themselves had ever learned to speak the language - virtually no books in Navajo had ever been published (sad fact for me). But the film concentrates more on the two protectors than on the Navajo code talkers, and that wasn't very interesting - both "white" characters were struggling with the battlefield clichés and lack of a good screenplay... Petty!

P.S. The film reportedly cost $115 million, but made only just under $41 million at the US box-office and a combined $77.6 million worldwide... I thought even that is too much!