WINDTALKERS

20TH CENTURY FOX

RELEASED 16 August 2002

It's 1943, and the U.S. has developed an indecipherable secret military code based on the Navajo language. Ben Yahzee and Charlie Whitehorse are trained as code talkers and assigned to Joe Enders (Nicholas Cage) and Ox Henderson (Christian Slater), their battlefield bodyguards. Ordered to "protect the code at all costs," Joe and Ox must prevent their codetalkers from being captured - whatever. Initial prejudice soon gives way to appreciation once the unit is shipped to Saipan, the Marines begin to appreciate the code talkers. 

Director John Woo has given us some great action movies over the years (Broken Arrow, Face/Off, Mission: Impossible 2) but this is just relentlessly boring. The action is loud and repetitive, occasionally even unrealistic - ever seen a soldier under-fire do a cartwheel? You do here! The characters are thinly drawn, the script contains every war cliche imaginable, and there is never any doubt as to the final resolution. A terrible semi-romance between Cage’s character and a nurse at the army base mercifully ends mid-way. What’s most disappointing is the way the Navajos’ story never develops. It could have been a far better film if it concentrated on their unique role in the war.

War is hell. Much like having to watch this film.

TWO OUT OF FIVE