Windtalkers Movie Review 2002

Woo's WW II drama squanders a promising premise and turns it into a by-the-book war flick. The plot is inspired by the true story of Navaho Native Americans recruited by the Marines in order to use their language as an unbreakable code. Sgt. Enders (Cage) is a Marine assigned to protect one of these men, Pvt. Yahzee (Beach), but he also has orders to kill him if capture is imminent to protect the secrets of the code. The stage is then set for some of Woo's favorite themes: betrayal, duty and explosive bloody violence. Unfortunately, the characters are trite and the violence a bit overwhelming.

Distribution

MGM Home Entertainment, 2500 Broadway, Santa Monica, CA 90404-6061, Phone: (310)449-3000, Fax: (310)449-3100, URL: http://www.mgmhomevideo.com, Remarks: Does not handle retail queries from consumers; contact your local video distributor.

Available on VHS, DVD
Running time 134 minutes.
Originally from United States.

Cast and Crew

Genres

Native America, World War II, Pacific Islands, Military: Marines

Screenplay

John Rice, Joe Batteer

Cast

Nicolas Cage, Adam Beach, Christian Slater, Noah Emmerich, Mark Ruffalo, Peter Stormare, Brian Van Holt, Frances O'Connor, Jason Isaacs, Martin Henderson, Roger Willie

Cinematography

Jeffrey L. Kimball

Director

John Woo

Music

James Horner

Other

Richard Goodman, Tom Rolf, Steven Kemper, Jeff Gullo, Kevin Ishioka, Nick Scarano, Holger Gross

Producer

John Woo, Terence Chang, Scott Kramer, Gregory Jacobs, Lion Rock, MGM