A wonderful Human Story

Rating: 10/10 (20 June 2002)

I went to watch this because it looked interesting and I lived in New Mexico on the border of the Navajo Reservation for 15 years.
This movie was incredible. Nicholas Cage was outstanding as Sgt. Joe Enders, who was resistant to become friendly with Ben Yazzie(Adam Beach), the young Navajo Code Talker who became his charge. They did become friends and Yazzie helped him work through his guilt at losing his men on the Solomon Islands. And eventually, Enders has to reveal his orders which challenge his basic beliefs. Adam Beach was excellant as the youthful young Navajo who became Ender's charge. There was a fantastic chemistry between these two men, but that wasn't the only superb pairing. Christian Slater and Roger Willie were excellant as Henderson and Whitehorse. These two actors meshed their performances as Henderson and Whitehorse meshed their music and became friends.
The visuals were magnificent and brought out the beauty of Northeast Arizona and Northwest New Mexico. The sweeping camera angels showed such wonderful monuments as the Shiprock, a sacred place to the Navajo. The war scenes were graphic and harsh just as the carnage of war is. The stunts were exceptional and the CGI graphics meshed the ground action with air action.
The directing was outstanding, which is too be expected of Mr. Woo. He had the Native American actors portray the Navajo Code Talkers with dignity. The story by Rice and Batteer was a simple story which had been done before, but not in such an eloquent way. There were the obligatory roles that the audience has come to expect from a war film: the tough sargaent, the young recruit, the bigot and those who accepted the young Navajo, but weren't sure what to make of him.
I recommend this movie highly, but caution the audience about the graphic battle scenes. But if the audience can get past the graphic battle scenes this movie is more than worth the cost of admission and the audience will enjoy a very human story.