A disgrace

Rating: 1/10 (7 October 2007)

When I first heard about this movie, I was very, very excited. Finally, a WWII movie that would be about the invasion of Saipan, the place where I was born and raised. My excitement stemmed from the fact that Saipan would finally be shown, and its story told.
Windtalkers did completely the opposite. Instead of telling the story of the invasion of Saipan, the movie was entirely about Nicholas Cage. Cage. Cage. Cage. Watching the movie was a complete waste of time.
Throughout the entire movie, I was angry at how John Woo decided to portray Saipan. First of all, there are absolutely no large hills on this island. I understood that shooting a WWII movie on Saipan is pretty much impossible because of the major development the island has gone through, but PLEASE do some research on the island before you shoot the movie. Hawaii is not the same as every single island in the Pacific.
Second, Garapan (one of the villages portrayed in the film) wasn't a village full of grass huts. It was a pretty well developed village. It was the largest, and still is the largest, village on Saipan.
Third, Saipan was occupied by the Japanese before the start of WWII. Thus, the fortifications on the island would've been a lot stronger than those shown in the movie. The successful invasion of Saipan was an extreme blow to Japanese morale because it was the first successful invasion of Japanese territory that was occupied before the war.
Every single time I see a clip of this movie, I get angry. Everything about this movie is terrible. Everything.
I would never recommend this movie to anyone. If there was a way to rate this movie less than 1 out of 10 stars, I would do it.
A total disappointment.