Not The Real Pacific War, But Typical Woo *Possible Spoilers*

Rating: 3/10 (15 September 2003)

** POSSIBLE SPOILERS** The story of the Navajo code talkers was one of the great success stories of World War 2 and had not received it due for so long. Woo had picked an excellent and very worthy topic to film. However the code talkers story deserved so much more than it received in this film. While some parts were well done, The movie suffered from far too much Hollywood movie "action" that was artificially inserted to "jazz" it up. Woo likes action films and usually does them well "Face Off" for example. Reality was not a big issue in that movie, but if you are telling a story from real life which appeared to be the intent of this film, then overdoing the action hurts it. There was a constant litany of contrived scene after contrived scene designed to allow more and bigger special effects (mostly big explosions) rather than build and enhance the story. The tactics and manuevers used in the movie reflect a flawed Hollywood mentality trying to set up a scene for big special effects, and NOT what the Marines (who were fairly wise to Japanese tactics by the time they landed on Saipan) really used. The movie did fairly well in potraying the brutal, savage, no quarter type of close hand to hand combat that the Marines faced with the Japanese. The fighting in the town and brush were OK in that respect.
But ONLY in a Hollywood movie do artillery rounds land right on target on the first shot. It was absolutely RIDICULOUS to see nearly EVERY shot be precise enough to hit a tank, truck, or individual man!! I spent 2 years in an artillery battalion, it does NOT work that way. There are too many flaws to even begin to list them. These flaws and the numerous contrived situations in the movie caused the real story (which should have been most important) to be lost. Woo should stick to action films with story lines that allow a person to suspend their disbelief (like Face Off). Windtalkers was just a bunch of hot air. Too bad, the guys in real life deserved better representation. My vote is a 3 out of 10.