under-appreciated anti-war movie

Rating: 10/10 (23 March 2003)

The other users who commented seem to have missed the point of this movie, which is that violence kills the soul (a latent theme in most of Woo's work). This comes across most bluntly in Nic Cage's bizarrely over/under-acted character, a highly decorated and highly traumatized soldier who thinks that by waging a one-man war he can spare the rest of his company from dying. The rest of the acting is not much more nuanced; Adam Beach is better than he was in Smoke Signals, and Christian Slater plays the open-minded white guy in an effectively naive manner. The production quality of the movie is not exactly up to par either, with terrible music and a made-for-TV look.
But the movie is an absolute stunner. I don't know any other recent action movie that has affected me this deeply, besides "Fellowship of the Ring." This might be why other users rated it so low--this is a war movie that tricks you into watching an anti-war movie. Instead of feeling exhilarated by the violence, you are left drained and regretful. Still, the action scenes are damn good, and incorporate lots of clever moves.
Finally, this is one of the only big-budget movies to deal with Native American issues in a complex manner. If you are a white American and you don't mind facing up to your own history while watching a bad-ass movie, then by all means rent Windtalkers.