The Invasion of Saipan with an Occasional Navaho thrown in

Rating: 3/10 (21 July 2005)

If you are looking for a film that will provide you with the story of the Navaho Codetalkers, this really isn't your film. If you're look for a war flick with plenty of gore and where everything seems to explode in massive fireballs (just like in the Simpsons!), this is your flick.
While the title focuses on the Navaho Codetalkers, most of the film is really taken up with inflated actions scenes and stock characters. While there is some effort to show the training of the Codetalkers, how they were actually used is obscured (they didn't call in coded fire missions) and some of the scenes are just ludicrous. The scene where one of the codetalkers poses as a Japanese soldier taking a Marine prisoner is pretty silly. I guess the Japanese officer they approach must have assumed this soldier was from Japan's wild west.
In essence, the "Windtalkers" theme is just something to catch you eye and make this film "different." John Woo really didn't want to make a film about the Navaho Codetalkers. This film is just an exercise in explosive excess.