Watch it for the sake of the Navajos

Rating: Null/10 (15 June 2002)

One of the benefits I have with working in media is getting to see advance screenings of films. I saw this movie about two weeks before it officially opened. My wife and I went to go watch it.After the film, I told my wife that I felt the film focused way too much on combat scenes (and the totally unecessary plot twist of Cage's character's budding love life) and nowhere near as much on the windtalkers.
Frankly, I think someone like Steven Spielberg or James Cameron, both of whom seem very adept at balancing action/special effects with solid story lines, would've done a much better job directing this film. Woo's films, to me, seem way too top heavy on the action sequences.
Frankly, I was disappointed in this film. You'd think that a 2.5 hour film would spend more than around 15 minutes in the scenes revolving around the Windtalkers and their code. There's one brief scene where they get recruited, another brief scene where they are taught the code in school and scribe the code being used, another scene where they use the code to have the Navy give them fire support, and one brief scene where a Japanese voice interceptor listens to the code and says "It sounds like they're talking underwater! Are they speaking in English?"
Frankly, I think the movie should've had more scenes with the code being used, a ton of more scenes with the Japanese trying to figure out what to do (they broke every code we'd previously used and never broke this one).
In short, John Woo failed to properly tell the story of the Windtalkers. Frankly, I'd give it 1.5 stars out of four, but see it anyway for the sake of the Navajo. Considering our track record as a country for treating the American Indians, they deserve recognition for their efforts in World War II.