A different way of telling a story

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

There are already many reviews panning this film for simply being poorly made, badly acted, directed, and written, unbelievable, and gory and exploitative. A smaller number of reviews rightly consider it an insult to the memory of WWII veterans and more specifically Native vets and Navajo Code Talkers.I'd like to focus my review on its many historical inaccuracies. The biggest one is that its central premise is wrong and appallingly offensive, the false claim that Marines assigned to be bodyguards to Code Talkers were ordered to kill them rather than let them be taken prisoners. Not only is it utterly wrong, it's near impossible to imagine any Marine killing another Marine, or any Marine officer giving such an order. The claim ignores that some Code Talkers were, in fact, captured. The scriptwriter also seems to have not known that the famed code was not just two Navajos talking to each other. The original 28 Navajo Code Talkers composed their own complex code. Navajos who were not Code Talkers could not understand nor reveal that code.This code was never written down until after the war, committed solely to memory, a great intellectual feat. Imagine the main character in The Imitation Game never writing down a code he'd written, for example. The Navajo code was also never broken, nor were any transmissions ever incorrect. This was a huge strategic advantage, and the entire USMC in the Pacific Theater came to depend on the code.None of that is mentioned in the film. It would have been far more accurate and interesting than this film focused almost solely on Cage's fictional character. The Navajo Nation did make their own film, a documentary, True Whispers. See it instead.There are also many good books discussing the Code Talkers: Chester Nez's Code Talker (autobiography); Doris Paul's and Nathan Aseng's Navajo Code Talkers (two separate books); Jere Franco's Across the Pond; and my own book Medicine Bags and Dog Tags. Thanks for reading this far, Dr. Alton Carroll US, American Indian, and Latin American History Northern Virginia Community College

Windtalkers is by far the most inaccurate and unrealistic war movie I've ever had the displeasure of seeing. I was a fan of the film growing up, as explosions generally attract young boys. Now that I've matured it's painfully obvious how generic it is. The acting is sub par for a war movie, the genuine emotions of war are vacant in this film. The amount of explosions almost make me think Michael Bay was really behind this film, using John Woo as an alias. Nic Cage is a one man army, which is truly the most irritating part of it all. His character is equipped with an M1A1 Thompson SMG. The Thompson holds 20 rounds a magazine, yet I don't believe I saw Cage reload a single time. Besides his infinite magazine and ammunition, he single handedly kills dozens upon dozens of the enemy, which makes the rest of his squad appear utterly useless. Adam Beach gives a rather a dry performance, which further proves my theory that he's nothing but a mediocre Michael Pena. How he landed a role in Flags of Our Fathers, a war film light years ahead of Windtalkers, is beyond me. In one of the final scenes, where Nic Cages character (Enders) dies, I couldn't decide which actor was less believable. For your closest companion on the battlefield sacrificing his life for yours, you'd think he'd have a little more emotion as he says goodbye. Two dull leading actors severely hurt the more dramatic scenes. This film is a textbook example of clichés, predictable outcomes, crucial scenes ruined by mediocre acting, and so much more. The only reason I rated it a generous 4/10 was for the entertainment factor. If you discard historical content and the near insulting portrayal of war, the impressive (although sometimes overdone) amount of explosions and the abundance of extras can result in some very attractive shots. The bottom line is this movie is a very poorly done film in regards to the war genre, but as far as action goes its enough to keep you entertained. If you're a history buff like I am, you'll want to rip your hair out in the first fifteen minutes. If you're just looking for a solid action movie, this might just be enough.

During World War II, Navajos were recruited by the U.S. military to send and transmit messages in a code based on their complex language; the Japanese were never able to crack the code, and the tale of these Navajos and their contribution to winning the war in the Pacific would have made an engrossing film. John Woo's "Windtalkers" starts promisingly with a young Navajo, Ben Yahzee, played by Adam Beach, bidding his family goodbye and boarding a bus to join the army. While the early days of Yahzee's indoctrination and training in the Navajo-based code are touched upon, the film soon veers away and follows Sergeant Joe Enders, played by Nicolas Cage, whose sometimes contrived story is more conventional and less interesting than that of the Navajo recruits. Cage is assigned to protect Beach and his knowledge of the code from capture by the Japanese; Beach is unaware that Cage has been instructed to kill him rather than let him fall into Japanese hands."Windtalkers" does detail the prejudice and persecution endured by the Navajos from both other enlisted men and their superiors, although to say the Navajos resemble the Japanese is an implausible stretch. Beach and Roger Willie as Charlie Whitehorse are the only two Navajo characters with any screen time. While Beach is a Canadian Saulteaux and studied Navajo for the film, Willie is a Navajo of the Wateredge Clan. Although Cage gives a solid performance as Enders and is ably supported by Christian Slater, Mark Ruffalo, Noah Emmerich, and Peter Stornare, the excellently conceived and filmed battle scenes upstage the actors. Often gruesomely graphic, John Woo stages sweeping battlefield scenes that are exhilarating and spectacular. Planes swoop overhead, bombs detonate and send streamers of shrapnel into the air, flame throwers ignite tanks and soldiers alike, and the camera moves in to capture a human torch or a savage bayoneting in closeup. The action and lush green Hawaiian shooting locations are beautifully captured by Jeffrey L. Kimball's excellent cinematography, and a fine James Horner score further enhances the film.A solid cast, good production values, stunningly realistic battle scenes, "Windtalkers" has a lot going for it, but ultimately the film missed an opportunity to recount a fascinating footnote to World War II history. The movie begins and ends amidst the majestic splendor of Monument Valley and does pay passing homage to the contribution of the Navajos to the war effort and final victory. However, the focus has been misplaced on a white solder rather than on the Navajos, which lessens the film's import. Instead of a classic retelling of a near-forgotten story, "Windtalkers" is a well acted, but routine war movie with some spectacular battle scenes that come perilously close to overwhelming the personal stories.

Sorry- this did not meet my expectations. First, i don't know much about war but i guess there is no armistice-button. Most of this is a massacre (if you watch the directors cut), and Nicholas Cage has a loss of memories (as he lies in the hospital with open eyes), is almost deaf, but suddenly his acoustic senses are intact, so he returns to war like all of what happened earlier was a bad dream, and also later he is mostly spared by the bullets. The twist of fate, what you find in history books, is, that the guy shooting with the flamethrower becomes a target himself and seriously burned, so one of the comrades has to give him the coup de grace. However, the shootouts look realistic but the airplanes seem to be slower than the bullets, like a simulation. But-what did i expect? i was watching movies like "enigma" and "a beautiful mind" which were sophisticated, but this was mostly like "saving private Ryan" with a few navajoes. In this genre i recommend rather "the killing fields", "full metal jacket", "the dirty dozen", "where eagles dare", "casualties of war", "black hawk down" or "apocalypse now". The final issue is, did the character of "joe enders" played by Nicholas Cage who tried to act coldblooded and taciturn like charles bronson, really exist? in fact i heard about "Carlos James Lozada", "Randall Shughart", "Gary Gordon" and "Chester Nimitz" on afn radio europe(you will find them on wikipedia) who did, because this should be a criteria. for evaluating a movie.