Woo's Best Film Gives Us An Enlightening Look Into Radio Operating.

Rating: 6/10 (20 July 2005)

All though Windtalkers may be listed as a war film, it's more primarily one of those epic action film as the vast scenes of quick editing, gun fire and over the top death scenes from the soldiers make it so but that is what you'd come to expect from John Woo, this is very much a John Woo war film and we can tell.
The plot, revolving around native Americans and their secret language that the axis power of Japan cannot decipher is a breath of fresh air and a good basis for the story. It is refreshingly unique as it's something that I hadn't seen before in a war film; again, it seems more suited to an action film's plot ie; protecting certain people from an 'enemy' as seen in perhaps the three 'Terminator' films which are obviously high budget action films only with a war 'THEME', rather than basis.
The setting is as glorious as you'd expect but it doesn't matter as much as it is a simple 'go in and take the island' mission which is bizarre as the mission in this film really doesn't qualify at all in terms of importance, it's all about the radio operators and their job. This brings me onto the other characters. It's difficult to recognise each character individually as the main focus is around the two characters that of Joe Enders (Played by Cage) and his Windtalker: 'Yahzee'. We don't really get much of a chance to focus too much on anyone else apart from Charlie, Yahzee's friend from his village. Cage's character also adopts too much of a 'Rambo' figure in the film. It seems that Japanese soldiers drop just as quickly in this film as a 50 odd handicapped golfer drops shots in a standard round. It is very reminiscent to that of Vietnamese soldiers in Rambo's second outing.
This doesn't distract from the films battle scene quality. This is by far the best Woo can do when in comparison to that of 'Mission Impossible 2' or 'Hard Target', albeit that they were over the top in their own sense but this does have a slight hint of realism flavour. Be it the brutal opening exchanges on the Solomon Islands or the scenario best described by saying 'the Allies in this trench versus the Axis in the other trench. Let the mayhem begin', there is definitely something there for everyone and the action is realistic and accurate.