DANCES WITH CLICHES

Rating: Null/10 (17 June 2002)

WINDTALKERS (2002) **1/2 Nicolas Cage, Adam Beach, Christian Slater, Peter Stormare, Noah Emmerich, Mark Ruffalo, Brian Van Holt, Martin Henderson, Roger Willie, Frances O' Connor, Jason Isaacs. WWII actioner depicting the use of Navajo Indians as code-breakers in communications with Cage as a shell-shocked weary Marine in charge of baby-sitting' his windtalker' (one-note Beach) while trying to make it through hell alive and getting some life lessons along the way. Master action filmmaker John Woo plies his trade expertly with his cunning staging of the battle of Saipan with his trademark slo-mo, bird imagery and conflicted brothers in arms tools of the trade in full glory but the pedestrian script by John Rice & Joe Betteer is pure recycled B-movie junk including everything from doomed soldiers passing on wedding rings to their girls back home to the racist seeing the light.