"Windtalkers" is a film that falls into that odd little category of movies that I can not decide on whether or not I like the film. Part of me enjoyed the John Woo directed war film, while the other part of me thought it was thin in storyline and credibility. Action scenes were well done and some of the combat sequences as the military marches onto Saipan were magnificently done with enormous explosions, realistic looking military hardware and lots of chaos. John Woo is a very talented director and though my favorite films that were created by the hand of Woo are his Hong Kong classics such as "Ying hung boon sik" (A Better Tomorrow), "Dip hyut shueng hung" (The Killer) and "Laat sau sen taan" (Hard-Boiled), I have not thoroughly enjoyed many of his American produced pictures. "Broken Arrow" and "Face/Off" were laughable at times. "Mission: Impossible II" was an art in excess and though I typically love anything starring Uma Thurman, "Paycheck" was very difficult to sit through. Out of all of the films directed by Woo in the Western world, "Windtalkers" is easily the film I enjoy the most. I´m just not sold on if I truly like the film or not.
The picture finds the versatile and Woo-friendly Nicolas Cage taking the role of Sergeant Joe Enders, a Marine who is nearly killed and left partially deaf after his unit is devastated by the Japanese; leaving him as the sole survivor. With the Japanese cracking every transmission code tried by the Americans, a decision is made to enroll American Navajo Indians and use these Windtalkers as a means of sending encrypted messages past Japanese listening posts without compromising the code. Private Ben Yahzee (Adam Beach, "Flags of Our Fathers") is a very eager American Native that signs up to help do his part in fighting for his country. He has never tasted battle and is a wonderful father and kind soul who is not fully equipped for the horrors and rigors of battle. To protect Yahzee from being captured and tortured by the Japanese, Joe Enders is assigned to protect Yahzee and more importantly, the code, from Japanese capture. To protect the code, Enders must kill Yahzee if there is any chance of the Windtalker falling into enemy hands.
The film builds massive battle sequences with a visceral mix of gunfire, explosions and blood. These sequences are then mixed with the semblance of a story that finds Joe Enders struggling to not befriend the likeable and charismatic Navajo and struggling with his own personal problems that have resulted from his near-death experience. His fellow Marine protector, Sergeant Pete Anderson (Christian Slater) has quickly befriended his Navajo, Private Charlie Whitehouse (Roger Willie) and Enders feels that befriending the Indian could result in a weakness if the time comes to protect the code by killing either Whitehouse or Yahzee. In a subplot that only serves to illustrate that Enders is emotionally confused and messed up, a lovely nurse (Frances O´Connor) constantly writes Enders, but he refuses to read her letters. Nothing is fleshed out of his thoughts on Rita, but he consistently receives and ignores her letters during mail call. Solid character actor Peter Stormare and familiar faces Mark Ruffalo and Jason Isaacs provide supporting roles.
As "Windtalkers" wages its war through its long 134 minutes of running time, two things become certain. The first is that Nicolas Cage is very good at portraying a man on the edge of sanity and a man without conflicted with his own emotions. The second thing is that Joe Enders is truly a G.I. Joe superhero. He moves through battles and is amazingly unscathed. Death surrounds the character and his battle sense, reflexes and ability to ascertain what is going on is startling; especially considering he is half deaf and has a problem with his balance and equilibrium. He is also the most amazing pistol shooter I have ever seen. Being a former member of the U.S. Infantry, I have very good knowledge of the accuracy and capabilities of the Colt 1911 .45 Automatic pistol and the scenes climax is a truly amazing show of pistol accuracy. This mix of an emotionally disturbed and uncertain soldier simply clashes with his numerous soldier super powers. Cage´s character is another reason why I am not quite sure if I truly like the movie or not.
"Windtalkers" ends as expected. Joe Enders is brought to a point where he must honor his heart and feelings or continue to be a good Marine. He finds redemption before the credits crawl and Yahzee is proud to call Joe Enders a friend. Yahzee does partake in one moment of bloodlust, but aside from that, there is little character development for the talented Adam Beach to weave into his performance. If you´ve seen one Nic Cage, down-on-their-luck performance, then you´ll be familiar with what he brings to the table as Joe Enders. He is perfectly cast in the role, as he has shown time and time again that he can be an action hero and a suicidal drunk. If there was more of a story wrapped around the nicely done battle scenes, then I feel I´d have no problem stating outright that I enjoyed this film. This is certainly better than "Broken Arrow" or "Face/Off" and shows that Woo can make a beautifully shot World War II film. It is hard to hate any film that gives Peter Stormare more than just a couple lines, but it is sometimes hard to like a film based upon reality that doesn´t care much for storytelling and worries more about bigger bangs in its combat scenes.
The picture finds the versatile and Woo-friendly Nicolas Cage taking the role of Sergeant Joe Enders, a Marine who is nearly killed and left partially deaf after his unit is devastated by the Japanese; leaving him as the sole survivor. With the Japanese cracking every transmission code tried by the Americans, a decision is made to enroll American Navajo Indians and use these Windtalkers as a means of sending encrypted messages past Japanese listening posts without compromising the code. Private Ben Yahzee (Adam Beach, "Flags of Our Fathers") is a very eager American Native that signs up to help do his part in fighting for his country. He has never tasted battle and is a wonderful father and kind soul who is not fully equipped for the horrors and rigors of battle. To protect Yahzee from being captured and tortured by the Japanese, Joe Enders is assigned to protect Yahzee and more importantly, the code, from Japanese capture. To protect the code, Enders must kill Yahzee if there is any chance of the Windtalker falling into enemy hands.
The film builds massive battle sequences with a visceral mix of gunfire, explosions and blood. These sequences are then mixed with the semblance of a story that finds Joe Enders struggling to not befriend the likeable and charismatic Navajo and struggling with his own personal problems that have resulted from his near-death experience. His fellow Marine protector, Sergeant Pete Anderson (Christian Slater) has quickly befriended his Navajo, Private Charlie Whitehouse (Roger Willie) and Enders feels that befriending the Indian could result in a weakness if the time comes to protect the code by killing either Whitehouse or Yahzee. In a subplot that only serves to illustrate that Enders is emotionally confused and messed up, a lovely nurse (Frances O´Connor) constantly writes Enders, but he refuses to read her letters. Nothing is fleshed out of his thoughts on Rita, but he consistently receives and ignores her letters during mail call. Solid character actor Peter Stormare and familiar faces Mark Ruffalo and Jason Isaacs provide supporting roles.
As "Windtalkers" wages its war through its long 134 minutes of running time, two things become certain. The first is that Nicolas Cage is very good at portraying a man on the edge of sanity and a man without conflicted with his own emotions. The second thing is that Joe Enders is truly a G.I. Joe superhero. He moves through battles and is amazingly unscathed. Death surrounds the character and his battle sense, reflexes and ability to ascertain what is going on is startling; especially considering he is half deaf and has a problem with his balance and equilibrium. He is also the most amazing pistol shooter I have ever seen. Being a former member of the U.S. Infantry, I have very good knowledge of the accuracy and capabilities of the Colt 1911 .45 Automatic pistol and the scenes climax is a truly amazing show of pistol accuracy. This mix of an emotionally disturbed and uncertain soldier simply clashes with his numerous soldier super powers. Cage´s character is another reason why I am not quite sure if I truly like the movie or not.
"Windtalkers" ends as expected. Joe Enders is brought to a point where he must honor his heart and feelings or continue to be a good Marine. He finds redemption before the credits crawl and Yahzee is proud to call Joe Enders a friend. Yahzee does partake in one moment of bloodlust, but aside from that, there is little character development for the talented Adam Beach to weave into his performance. If you´ve seen one Nic Cage, down-on-their-luck performance, then you´ll be familiar with what he brings to the table as Joe Enders. He is perfectly cast in the role, as he has shown time and time again that he can be an action hero and a suicidal drunk. If there was more of a story wrapped around the nicely done battle scenes, then I feel I´d have no problem stating outright that I enjoyed this film. This is certainly better than "Broken Arrow" or "Face/Off" and shows that Woo can make a beautifully shot World War II film. It is hard to hate any film that gives Peter Stormare more than just a couple lines, but it is sometimes hard to like a film based upon reality that doesn´t care much for storytelling and worries more about bigger bangs in its combat scenes.
"Windtalkers" is a film that falls into that odd little category of movies that I can not decide on whether or not I like the film. Part of me enjoyed the John Woo directed war film, while the other part of me thought it was thin in storyline and credibility. Action scenes were well done and some of the combat sequences as the military marches onto Saipan were magnificently done with enormous explosions, realistic looking military hardware and lots of chaos. John Woo is a very talented director and though my favorite films that were created by the hand of Woo are his Hong Kong classics such as "Ying hung boon sik" (A Better Tomorrow), "Dip hyut shueng hung" (The Killer) and "Laat sau sen taan" (Hard-Boiled), I have not thoroughly enjoyed many of his American produced pictures. "Broken Arrow" and "Face/Off" were laughable at times. "Mission: Impossible II" was an art in excess and though I typically love anything starring Uma Thurman, "Paycheck" was very difficult to sit through. Out of all of the films directed by Woo in the Western world, "Windtalkers" is easily the film I enjoy the most. I´m just not sold on if I truly like the film or not.
The picture finds the versatile and Woo-friendly Nicolas Cage taking the role of Sergeant Joe Enders, a Marine who is nearly killed and left partially deaf after his unit is devastated by the Japanese; leaving him as the sole survivor. With the Japanese cracking every transmission code tried by the Americans, a decision is made to enroll American Navajo Indians and use these Windtalkers as a means of sending encrypted messages past Japanese listening posts without compromising the code. Private Ben Yahzee (Adam Beach, "Flags of Our Fathers") is a very eager American Native that signs up to help do his part in fighting for his country. He has never tasted battle and is a wonderful father and kind soul who is not fully equipped for the horrors and rigors of battle. To protect Yahzee from being captured and tortured by the Japanese, Joe Enders is assigned to protect Yahzee and more importantly, the code, from Japanese capture. To protect the code, Enders must kill Yahzee if there is any chance of the Windtalker falling into enemy hands.
The film builds massive battle sequences with a visceral mix of gunfire, explosions and blood. These sequences are then mixed with the semblance of a story that finds Joe Enders struggling to not befriend the likeable and charismatic Navajo and struggling with his own personal problems that have resulted from his near-death experience. His fellow Marine protector, Sergeant Pete Anderson (Christian Slater) has quickly befriended his Navajo, Private Charlie Whitehouse (Roger Willie) and Enders feels that befriending the Indian could result in a weakness if the time comes to protect the code by killing either Whitehouse or Yahzee. In a subplot that only serves to illustrate that Enders is emotionally confused and messed up, a lovely nurse (Frances O´Connor) constantly writes Enders, but he refuses to read her letters. Nothing is fleshed out of his thoughts on Rita, but he consistently receives and ignores her letters during mail call. Solid character actor Peter Stormare and familiar faces Mark Ruffalo and Jason Isaacs provide supporting roles.
As "Windtalkers" wages its war through its long 134 minutes of running time, two things become certain. The first is that Nicolas Cage is very good at portraying a man on the edge of sanity and a man without conflicted with his own emotions. The second thing is that Joe Enders is truly a G.I. Joe superhero. He moves through battles and is amazingly unscathed. Death surrounds the character and his battle sense, reflexes and ability to ascertain what is going on is startling; especially considering he is half deaf and has a problem with his balance and equilibrium. He is also the most amazing pistol shooter I have ever seen. Being a former member of the U.S. Infantry, I have very good knowledge of the accuracy and capabilities of the Colt 1911 .45 Automatic pistol and the scenes climax is a truly amazing show of pistol accuracy. This mix of an emotionally disturbed and uncertain soldier simply clashes with his numerous soldier super powers. Cage´s character is another reason why I am not quite sure if I truly like the movie or not.
"Windtalkers" ends as expected. Joe Enders is brought to a point where he must honor his heart and feelings or continue to be a good Marine. He finds redemption before the credits crawl and Yahzee is proud to call Joe Enders a friend. Yahzee does partake in one moment of bloodlust, but aside from that, there is little character development for the talented Adam Beach to weave into his performance. If you´ve seen one Nic Cage, down-on-their-luck performance, then you´ll be familiar with what he brings to the table as Joe Enders. He is perfectly cast in the role, as he has shown time and time again that he can be an action hero and a suicidal drunk. If there was more of a story wrapped around the nicely done battle scenes, then I feel I´d have no problem stating outright that I enjoyed this film. This is certainly better than "Broken Arrow" or "Face/Off" and shows that Woo can make a beautifully shot World War II film. It is hard to hate any film that gives Peter Stormare more than just a couple lines, but it is sometimes hard to like a film based upon reality that doesn´t care much for storytelling and worries more about bigger bangs in its combat scenes.
The picture finds the versatile and Woo-friendly Nicolas Cage taking the role of Sergeant Joe Enders, a Marine who is nearly killed and left partially deaf after his unit is devastated by the Japanese; leaving him as the sole survivor. With the Japanese cracking every transmission code tried by the Americans, a decision is made to enroll American Navajo Indians and use these Windtalkers as a means of sending encrypted messages past Japanese listening posts without compromising the code. Private Ben Yahzee (Adam Beach, "Flags of Our Fathers") is a very eager American Native that signs up to help do his part in fighting for his country. He has never tasted battle and is a wonderful father and kind soul who is not fully equipped for the horrors and rigors of battle. To protect Yahzee from being captured and tortured by the Japanese, Joe Enders is assigned to protect Yahzee and more importantly, the code, from Japanese capture. To protect the code, Enders must kill Yahzee if there is any chance of the Windtalker falling into enemy hands.
The film builds massive battle sequences with a visceral mix of gunfire, explosions and blood. These sequences are then mixed with the semblance of a story that finds Joe Enders struggling to not befriend the likeable and charismatic Navajo and struggling with his own personal problems that have resulted from his near-death experience. His fellow Marine protector, Sergeant Pete Anderson (Christian Slater) has quickly befriended his Navajo, Private Charlie Whitehouse (Roger Willie) and Enders feels that befriending the Indian could result in a weakness if the time comes to protect the code by killing either Whitehouse or Yahzee. In a subplot that only serves to illustrate that Enders is emotionally confused and messed up, a lovely nurse (Frances O´Connor) constantly writes Enders, but he refuses to read her letters. Nothing is fleshed out of his thoughts on Rita, but he consistently receives and ignores her letters during mail call. Solid character actor Peter Stormare and familiar faces Mark Ruffalo and Jason Isaacs provide supporting roles.
As "Windtalkers" wages its war through its long 134 minutes of running time, two things become certain. The first is that Nicolas Cage is very good at portraying a man on the edge of sanity and a man without conflicted with his own emotions. The second thing is that Joe Enders is truly a G.I. Joe superhero. He moves through battles and is amazingly unscathed. Death surrounds the character and his battle sense, reflexes and ability to ascertain what is going on is startling; especially considering he is half deaf and has a problem with his balance and equilibrium. He is also the most amazing pistol shooter I have ever seen. Being a former member of the U.S. Infantry, I have very good knowledge of the accuracy and capabilities of the Colt 1911 .45 Automatic pistol and the scenes climax is a truly amazing show of pistol accuracy. This mix of an emotionally disturbed and uncertain soldier simply clashes with his numerous soldier super powers. Cage´s character is another reason why I am not quite sure if I truly like the movie or not.
"Windtalkers" ends as expected. Joe Enders is brought to a point where he must honor his heart and feelings or continue to be a good Marine. He finds redemption before the credits crawl and Yahzee is proud to call Joe Enders a friend. Yahzee does partake in one moment of bloodlust, but aside from that, there is little character development for the talented Adam Beach to weave into his performance. If you´ve seen one Nic Cage, down-on-their-luck performance, then you´ll be familiar with what he brings to the table as Joe Enders. He is perfectly cast in the role, as he has shown time and time again that he can be an action hero and a suicidal drunk. If there was more of a story wrapped around the nicely done battle scenes, then I feel I´d have no problem stating outright that I enjoyed this film. This is certainly better than "Broken Arrow" or "Face/Off" and shows that Woo can make a beautifully shot World War II film. It is hard to hate any film that gives Peter Stormare more than just a couple lines, but it is sometimes hard to like a film based upon reality that doesn´t care much for storytelling and worries more about bigger bangs in its combat scenes.
No comments:
Post a Comment