Windtalkers (2002) - **1/2 (out of ****)

Rating: Null/10 (6 July 2002)

PLOT: Set during World War II (and mostly taking place in the Japanese island of Saipan), Marine Sergeant Joe Enders (Nicolas Cage) is a man haunted by his past war experiences. Now recovering from his injuries, he is given a new mission: he is to be partnered up with Navajo codetalker Private Ben Yahzee (Adam Beach), and he is to protect the code at all costs, even if it means killing Yahzee if he is to fall into enemy hands. Another man ordered to protect a codetalker is Sergeant Ox Anderson (Christian Slater), who is paired up with Private Charles Whitehorse (Roger Willie). Other characters include the racist Chick (Noah Emmerich) and nurse Rita (Frances O'Connor), who writes to Joe constantly.
MY TAKE: Windtalkers is another in a long line of realistic, graphic war films (mostly inspired by 1998's Saving Private Ryan). A great movie can still be made that can live up to Saving Private Ryan - We Were Soldiers was released earlier this year, and that was a terrific film. Windtalkers, unfortunately, doesn't live up. The battle scenes are all very good, but on a deeper emotional level, Windtalkers fails. The movie tries to deal with racism a little bit, but none of it is truly effective. We never get to know how useful the Navajo code was to our victory during the second World War; it's only a sidestory that we barely see. Another sidestory is the romantic interest for Enders (nurse Rita), but that should've been scrapped altogether. After Enders goes to Saipan, we never see her again, and we only have letters to remind us that she's evidently still in the movie. However, you can't fault the performances - there are a lot of good ones. Nicolas Cage does an excellent job of showing Enders's emotional and psychological scars, and it's easily his best performance as of late. Adam Beach is also effective, and Enders and Yahzee do show some chemistry together. Christian Slater and Roger Willie, while not getting as much screentime, are also good. Overall, Windtalkers is a good film, but it didn't leave much of an impact for me.