Windtalkers

By: Cage,Nicolas Ddmgm 1004026

Book Overview

During WWII, two U.S. Marines are assigned to protect two Navajo Marines code talkers. These men know a secret radio code that is much valuable than their individual lives.

• Format: DVD-ROM
• Language: English
• ISBN: B00005JK8K
• ISBN13: 9780792853787
• Release Date: September 2002
• Rating: R
• Publisher: MGM ENTERTAINMENT
• Runtime: 2 hours, 13 minutes
• Length: 134 Pages
• Weight: 0.05 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Surprisingly good.

I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. The characters were believable without drowning in their own melodrama. The action scenes were graphic but not gratuitous. I would highly recommend it! You can understand how Nicholas Cage's character is inevitably drawn into a relationship. Adam Beach's character was credible and not the least bit stereotyped. I half expected his character to be some Hollywood Native American step and fetch it but that was definitely not the case. He was wonderful and provided an insightful, nuanced performance.

Natives never got their medals

In the brutal World War II Battle of Saipan, Sergeant Joe Enders (Nicolas Cage) guards and ultimately befriends Ben Yahzee (Adam Beach), a young Navajo trained in the one wartime code never broken by the Jananese, the Navajo Code. But if Yahzee should fall into Japanese hands, how far will Enders go to save the military's most powerful secret? Plenty of Native humor and insight from the Navajo perspective. Solid acting and good film. Pity that none of the Native people have recieved their medals.

Realism and pain

I've seen hundreds of war movies over the years. "Windtalkers" stopped me in my tracks. To my surprise, it was actually painful to watch in its realism. No, I haven't been to war myself -- but my husband, a combat veteran of Vietnam, agrees that John Woo, the director, had caught the tone and the experience of combat perfectly. Yes, the blood and horror, but also the fatalism, and the heroism, and the loyalty to your buddies, and the job of being just a good Marine doing what you know has to be done. Nicolas Cage, Adam Beach and Christian Slater cared a lot about these roles, and it comes through. Seldom have I found I cared enough about a movie character to shed real tears for him or her; in this movie, that was easy. The characters develop very believably and the Navajo mysticism adds a fascinating twist to the plot. They said if you haven't seen "Saving Private Ryan", you don't know what the landing at Normany was like -- well, if you haven't seen "Windtalkers", you don't know what the Marines went through fighting from island to island in WWII. They're right -- some things really are worth dying for.

Woo Me.

The name John Woo and the words action/thriller are synonymous. I would never say that a movie battle scene was good, but I will say that the battle scenes in "Windtalkers" were excellent. Very real. Very terrifying.Combining John Woo with Nick Cage was a stroke of genius. If you saw either Face Off or ConAir, which weren't bad, you will quickly see that Mr. Cage may have given his best in this film. I was impressed. I was equally empressed with Adam Beach's preformance. His constant smile gave an almost calming effect to that calamity we call, war. The story is based on a truth. The Marines did enlist Navajo Indians to radio code using their own language. They were called "codetalkers." In this film Nick Cage is assigned to protect the Navajo codetalker and to protect the code. He is in a difficult position. Beach's character is totally likeable. But if Nicholas Cage, as Joe Enders, becomes to attached to Adam Beach, as Ben Yahzee, should Ben be captured, Joe will find it difficult to complete his assingment, which is to kill Ben.Music by James "Titanic" Horner, direction by John Woo, and solid preformances by Nicholas Cage and Adam Beach make "Windtalkers" one very well done movie.

A True War Movie

This movie is excellent. There's no glamorizing of war here - it shows how awful it really is. All the acting is great but I am especially impressed with Nicolas Cage. He does an excellent job of showing the pain and emotional trauma his character has gone through and is trying to cope with. War isn't pretty or easy and that is portrayed well in this movie.Words really can't explain the way this movie made me feel, but I'll try. It was horrifying. If I had been at home alone, I probably would have cried the whole way through. As it was I was on the verge of tears quite often throughout the movie in the theater. It was a shock to me, I guess. I've seen "Saving Private Ryan" and "A Thin Red Line," both of which are excellent movies which I think portrayed the truth of war quite well. But "The Windtalkers" was different. Much more impacting. Where as in most war movies, when there isn't fighting, there's a lull in the awfulness. This movie had much less of that because when there's a lull in the action, the characters have a chance to think and dwell on the awfulness that they've been through. I imagine that's what it's really like in a war, but I've never seen that portrayed until this movie.This movie represents to me what war is - awful, dirty, mind numbing, terrifying, horrible. And it is because of that realness that I love it. I think it is a memorial to the men who were there fighting for our country. I think it honors them in ways little else can. You see what they went though, you feel their pain and terror, you see them dying, you see them having to deal with watching their friends get shot and blown up... and you feel it all. The emotion you feel from this movie can't be put into words. And in feeling that it brings greater understanding of war and greater appreciation for those soldiers. This movie helps us to honor the men who fought and died for us and to remember why we should do everything we can to avoid sending our men and women into something like that again.