Fantastic. Even with so many war films recently made, original in it's own way

Rating: 10/10 (18 June 2002)

I've waited for this movie since before MI2 came out. I was hoping for the day it would get released. I've been a big fan of John Woo for years, and I was happy that Nicolas Cage became his American equivilant for Chow Yun-Fat. Of course, I was also happy to see that Cristian Slater was being given a chance back at the screen again. Sadly though, considering a unspectacular 14 million dollar opening and cynical views from the public, this movie may be a failure this summer. Many people are saying WINDTALKERS is a SAVING PRIVATE RYAN wanabe, has clich'ed acting and plot devices, and is predictable. This is all wrong. If one understands John Woo, it's obvious that he doesn't try to rip people off. Some people say one of the cliches is when a soldier gives his wife's ring to his friend saying "give this to her if I don't make it." It would have been cliche if his friend took the ring. But instead he told him to put it back on his finger and say something along the lines of. "You're not gonna die. Don't even joke about it." Nic Cage did much more than "put in his usual method performance." He was much different from his character from the other WW2 film of last year, CAPTAIN CORELLI'S MANDOLIN. In that movie he was a very passionate, loving man who had no real sense of violence. In WINDTALKERS, he is the oposite. He's cynical, cold, and unlikable. All because of watching his men die in front of him when he wanted to really pull them away from battle, but didn't because he was "following orders." This wasn't a "typical" Nic Cage performance. People also say Adam Beach was a total amature. He wasn't. Ben played a nice, naive man. He didn't want to fight, and we saw the pain in his face whenever he watched anyone die. We slowly watch him go from being a nice man to becoming hardened. He starts to become like Nic Cage, and when Cage sees this in Beach, he realizes how negative his additude is and how things would be if everyone had his additude. He doesn't realize it until a while into the film, but he realizes nevertheless. Also important, is how we are told about how important the Navajo Code Talkers were during WW2. We were never told this before, and it's time we knew now, and I'm happy that Woo showed us. The action is on it's own merrit. It doesn't copy, and Woo is able to show that he doesn't need dual pistols and fancy dodging and flying to showcase balletic action. HE took a totally different approach and still maintained his sense of original action direction. Such as when Beach and his Navajo friend run out of bullets and show their skills with the knife. Also, the famous "John Woo standoff" where Beach and a Japanese soldier point their guns at each other ready to fire is put to new use. It's not like in THE KILLER, FACE/OFF, or HARD-BOILED. It was shown differently, and not just for the sake of a standoff. It showed Beach's fear in killing a man, and the soldier's hesitation. It's not predictable who's gonna die either. Some of the more important people had unlikely fates. (Not a spoiler.) WINDTALKERS deserves success, and I only hope it gets more as time goes by.
10 out of 10