A well made and moving film

Rating: Null/10 (11 August 2002)

Being a massive John Woo fan, I was very eager to see the long delayed Windtalkers in Australia. With the fairly negative feedback from the US, my expectations were lowered yet after it's screening, I was very impressed.

After the endless war films released these days, it is hard to distinguish one war film from the other and these days, it all boils down to filmmakers trying to conquer new ground in the genre and John Woo certainly exceeds. Apart from the high level of male bonding that Woo excels at in Windtalkers and his other films, the story of the Najavo windtalkers would have to be one of the most intriguing concepts; assuming it's reasonable accurate, I've seen in a war film. Not since Saving Private Ryan has a war film actually created characters that emit some sympathy to the audience. After the average We Were Soldiers and hollow Black Hawk Down, the latter, a film that although was praised, i thought had no character development or generation of feeling for characters and felt more as a 140 minute documentary of brilliantly executed gunfire. Through Various scenes, Windtalkers creates a unique experience of Indian and caucasian American people to embalm a powerful story.
As for direction, John Woo certainly knows his craft and although i missed the awesome over the top direction of Face/Off, Woo certainly inserts flourishes of style with long steadicam sequences and various visual dream sequences that capture well, the inner emotions of characters. With good editing, cinematography for once that didnt copy Janusz Kaminski's forever copied dull washed look in SPR, technically, it is a well made film. John Woo creates an enticing complementary film to his more captivating Bullet in the Head that adds something fresh to the increasingly over-produced genre.