Disappointing "war" movie (contains Spoilers)

Rating: Null/10 (25 June 2002)

First off, I was surprised not to see a "goofs" section for this film, given the number of comments in the reviews I read here, that noted discrepancies among different caliber weaponry & their respective yields. Be that as it may, surely the biggest goof I noticed was the 50-star flag near the beginning of the film (when they arrived at basic training, IIRC)--perhaps Woo was being artsy, noting their heroism was timeless or something, but I doubt it. *SPOILER ALERT* I think a fellow reviewer hit the nail on the head as to the first use of the code, calling in Naval fire: so WHAT if that were intercepted? Would the Japs have died more happily, knowing what had been said even as 16" shells came down on their heads? So, the only reason I can see for the use of the code in that instance, is for authentication: if forward observer corrections were only to be accepted through the codetalking Navajos, fine--the Japs would not have been able to pull something of their own, redirecting USN gunfire. HOWEVER, when Yahzee dons enemy garb to get to their radio, in order to call off misdirected USMC gunfire, he does so in English: had they decided at that point not to bother authenticating fire control? What would have prevented the enemy from cutting in & doing that himself? Or, HAD they already done that, which is why it was hitting friendly troops? The World wonders.
I realize the Japs liked to do "the bayonet thing" when they had the chance, but there were lots of scenes where all they had to do was sit still & wait for the Americans to run at their entrenchments. That would have been a lot safer than leaving prepared positions so as to give the protagonists better targets. Someone better versed on the fighting in the Marianas can better comment--maybe they DID do this, which goes a long way to explaining why they lost the war.
The film mentioned that there were 30,000 Japanese soldiers on Saipan. By the time this movie was over, I felt like I had seen each and every one of them die. Don't get me wrong--I enjoy seeing Tojo's boys get killed as much as anyone, but there was so much that was NOT dealt with adequately in a movie that was SUPPOSED to be about the Navajos & their importance to our war effort. They were shortchanged by this movie, and ultimately, so was the audience.