Closing in on the Empire of Japan

Rating: 6/10 (16 December 2004)

This comment is if anything, uninformed as to the film itself and to the ways that the film tells a story.I was not impressed by the Enders character and even thought his self sacrificing was almost a conceit.The denial and the rude story about,first being awarded the Silver Star and which followed the story about his first commendation in which he received injuries probably should of taken him out of the war entirely.Its difficult to place because we are not saints, yet our efforts in the South Pacific were commented on by Admiral Halsey in a letter he wrote to the marines stationed on Guadalcanal in the latter period of 1942-my point is that theater of combat was real.It was then that our intelligence people did something that I wish even today that had been able to do at Pearl and that was break the Japanese Code.It is a terrible truth that we were close to making the right move, but to slow to beat history with our inability to act in light of the developments regarding the Empire of Japan at Pearl Harbor.The Japanese found out the hard way when we nailed there top guy as he was en-route through the air to one of the forward island positions.This was all due to our intelligence and the fact that we knew before hand what was to have occurred.The films storyline is of an intelligence ability that would allow open communication without the enemy knowing what was being communicated, because we had a secret weapon of sorts in the Navajo code talkers.The instances in the film,where the code talkers did what they trained to do were justifiably critical and paid dividends without much of a second thought.Both men who portrayed Navajo code talkers were assigned to the invasion of the Island of Saipan were understated and like the privilege of serving our country, intelligent and brave.This was done as a conservative note as to the films treatment of some of the unfriendly ways Native Americans have had to cope with being considered outsiders on there native soil.It is in fact a red face that seemingly causes all the problems, however the day is not lost on these resourceful Navajo code talkers.The difficult position had here is that both the Christian slater character and the Nicolas cage character present there ultimatum of never let these code talkers into the hands of the enemy while alive,Protect the code at all costs become a perceived edge of the relationship.This has the ability to limit as well as alienate these men and as well provides a difficult position from which to act.It is a very real struggle when the film allows one of the code talkers to die at the hands of a grenade thrown very wilfully by enders which was suppose to protect the code at all costs thus taking the life of one of the films heroes.He was by the way in the clutches of 4 Japanese soldiers as they were attempting a counterattack on what was suppose to be a secured position.Though the invasion was provided for on a big scale,there was very little that I would define as strategic.I would of not rested nights as well,however the film went about attempting to show a conflict in the life we know and the purpose had through this entertainment medium.The film provided a error in dividing our attention and as well made it hard to distinguish a particular course of action.That, in so far as history was concerned was not a problem-there was a very real focus,desire,commitment on our part to defeat the Empire of Japan.The attempt to showcase lifestyle was out of place,and as well the seemingly lack of character that pervaded the film was almost anti-war.It was anti-war because there was no purpose outside of names and such.It was as stated somewhat hard to figure as the film possessed a inability to convince this viewer that it was real.There was some shocking violence however, enders possessed a heroic position himself and went about conducting himself in such a way as to go beyond the call of duty and so exemplary were his actions in the field that he may of qualified for the Purple Heart awarded PostHumously.The captain of the campaign,Gunny(?) made a mention to Enders that was not understood entirely and I believe it is one of the failings of this film.This at all cost has all the earmarks of a mob-hit and not the need to know requirement that should of been present,this subject and the men whose lives it affected deserved better treatment.The film actually and its too bad is mediocre, because it fails to convince that we are in fact participating in an event that occurred in 1943.One review cited a formula recipe was what made this fail not the subject matter.