In another example of how Hollywood tries to recoup its losses for a film (Windtalkers cost near 120 million and, after a post-9/11 delay of six months, only made 40 million theatrically), MGM is proud to present Windtalkers: The Director’s Cut DVD with 19 WHOLE EXTRA MINUTES and THREE, count em, THREE COMMENTARIES. You could also call it the one disc-version (Disc one to be exact) of the three-disc special edition that was released in 2003 that contains the exact same contents that MGM is proud to rip you off, er, present you with.
Upon its initial release in 2002, Windtalkers was advertised as the “Inspired by True Events” story of how Army linguists used the language of the Navajo Indians to create a code that was instrumental in helping the Allies win World War II in the Pacific. Windtalkers refers to the Navajos who were drafted into the U.S. Army to decipher and transmit that code. Unfortunately, director John Woo chooses to focus on a white character, played by Nicolas Cage (miscast in a role that brings out his worst overacting tendencies.)
Of course, this being a Woo film, he takes every opportunity to overindulge in his inner-Peckinpah and stage one overly choreographed battle scene after another. Released around the same time as We Were Soldiers and Black Hawk Down, Windtalkers was yet another contestant in the lets-outdo Spielberg’s battle scenes in Private Ryan sweepstakes.
Set mostly during the Battle of Saipan in 1944, the film attempts to tell about the importance of the aforementioned Navajo code that the Japanese can’t break. The Navajo code breakers are trained to transmit messages in their language on the battlefield and are assigned a fellow Marine whose job is to protect the code at all costs. This means killing their Navajo counterparts if they are to fall into enemy hands. This is one of many liberties that Woo and the screenwriters take as this policy was never confirmed as fact, but what the hell, it makes for great drama right?
Cage plays decorated Marine Joe Enders. At the beginning of the film, Enders survives a battle on the Solomon Islands that kills all the men in his platoon and leaves him with physical and emotional scars. With the help of a pretty nurse (Frances O’Connor), he gets back into shape and, like Capt. Willard in Apocalypse Now, is anxious to get back to fighting. He draws the duty of protecting saintly Private Ben Yahzee (Adam Beach from Smoke Signals) - one of the windtalkers. Fellow Marine Ox Henderson (Christian Slater) is assigned a similar duty with another windtalker - Private Charlie Whitehorse (Roger Willie.) The Navajos are unaware that their Marine bodyguards have the order to kill them if they suspect capture. Naturally, one of the running subplots is whether or not Cage and Slater can actually follow through with their order should it come to that.
In the film, John Woo seems to have less interest in the Navajos, and more in staging battle scenes. They are impressively shot but there are too many and (wouldn’t you know it) much of the extra footage is devoted to (…you guessed it…) more battle scenes. The battles are broken up occasionally by the screenwriters´ tired attempt of presenting us with every character and dialogue cliché you’ve ever seen in a WWII film - from Sergeant York and From Here to Eternity to Saving Private Ryan.
There is the racist soldier whose life will be saved by the Navajos; there is the soldier who questions why he volunteered; there is the soldier that asks that his wedding band be sent to his wife should he perish in battle; and there is the scene where the soldiers talk about what they will do after the war. Right when anyone seems to be developing any sort of personality…BOOM…let’s have a battle scene.
Navajos Yahzee and Whitehorse are both seen one-dimensionally - that of saintly, tenderhearted patriots. When Yahzee goes from timid soldier to Rambo, you don’t buy it for a second. Cage’s character (who for some reason Woo thought would be interesting as the film’s anchor) does nothing except brood, hallucinate, and go nuts from time to time.
As in Snake Eyes, Cage seems to be trying REALLY HARD to show us how well he can shout, look haunted, and go bug eyed at the drop of a hat. This is not where his acting talents are best served. He is perfectly at home in off-beat, quirky films like Raising Arizona, Red Rock West, Adaptation, Leaving Las Vegas, and most recently Lord of War and The Weather Man. Here, he merely detracts from the real interest behind the film and becomes quickly annoying. James Horner’s chesty, overblown score seems to follow Cage and Woo’s idea that more is better.
John Woo, who made his name with such classic, male driven, Christian- metaphor heavy Hong Kong films like Hard Boiled, The Killer, and A Better Tomorrow, has done solid work here in the States. Face Off, which also featured Cage in a role more suited for him, was one of the classic action films of the 1990s. As his previous work shows, Woo is at his best when dealing with two male protagonists at odds with each other in a masculine, adrenalized, albeit hallucinatory world filled with bullets and blood.
Since he started making films in the States in 1991 (save Face Off and the exciting but empty-headed Mission Impossible 2), his films – such as Hard Target, Broken Arrow, and Windtalkers - have been misfires, and another example of how Hollywood is where good directors go to die. Woo has always been an admitted Peckinpah imitator. His films employ the same ballet, intimate, violence-as-poetry film technique that the great Sam pioneered with The Wild Bunch.
In Woo’s best work, the director pulls it off admirably. A war film (or at least a good one) requires a director that can develop character in the midst of battle. Here, the battle sequences, although impressive and well-shot, are to the point of overkill at the expense of the characters. Woo is the wrong director for this type of material.
The extra footage, as mentioned before, largely goes to war footage, and the rest goes to the underutilized subplot involving Cage and O’Connor’s nurse. The ultimate irony here is that the commentaries are more entertaining then the actual film.
Commentary one, with John Woo and producer Terrance Chang, focuses on the making of the film and the behind –the-scenes stories. Commentary two, with Cage and Slater, relates some of the actors’ opinions about the film and various other topics such as the difficulties of acting in a war film. Commentary three is the real treat with actor Roger Willie and real-life Navajo Code Talker Albert Smith. It is difficult to follow with both speaking in a soft Native American accent, but it is worth the work. Here is where you learn about the real history behind the windtalkers with Smith’s first person account of his war experiences as well as his spiritual practices. You could skip the film and just listen to this and be better off.
There probably was a great movie that could have been made here, but with a full-blown Hollywoodization it turned into a disaster. An indie film or even a documentary would’ve been more suited to focus on the Navajos and their historical aspect in WWII. Instead, all you get here is more of the mighty white man. Stay away from this - director’s cut or not.
Windtalkers (Director’s Cut) is now available at Amazon . As of yet, there is not a release date for the UK. Visit the DVD’s database for more information.
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