WINDTALKERS (*½)
Talk about wasted opportunities. Most of the time, I really dislike films that market themselves as one thing, but turn out to be something totally different. The WINDTALKERS' trailer talks up a storm on how it takes a look on how the Navajo gave a significant contribution to the Allied victory in the Pacific during World War II. Yet it is nothing of the sort. It is a silly action movie told through the eyes of a Caucasian, and hardly takes the perspective of the American Indians he's supposed to protect.
I have nothing towards films that tell tales of other cultures through white eyes. It can work, as it did magnificently in GLORY. But WINDTALKERS misses a huge chance at telling such an intriguing piece of history that is barely known about. What makes it even more surprising is that it is directed by John Woo. Being Asian, I thought he would have the kind of bravado to put us in the Navajo's shoes, giving a kind of foreign viewpoint. Yet upon seeing his work, you would think the film was directed by Michael Bay (PEARL HARBOR). As in Mr. Bay's recent war film, the Japanese have no dimensions, other than being emotionless soldiers, or stunned victims. Why would an Asian do this to fellow Asians?
If you've seen the trailer, you basically know what the movie is about. Sgt. Joe Enders (Nicholas Cage of LEAVING LAS VEGAS) is a war-torn veteran assigned to protect a codetalker named Ben Yahzee (Adam Beach of SMOKE SIGNALS), a Navajo so good, that he deserves to wear a halo more than a helmet. They are sent to the island of Saipan, which is controlled by the Japanese. Taking it would mean a huge strategic stepping stone towards the defeat of the Japan, and the movie implies that the Allies (mainly the American forces here) need the codetalkers to bring this about. The code seems too important for the Japanese to break, so there is the additional implication that the Navajos should be executed by their own side in case their capture is imminent.
As background, Sgt. Enders is the only surviving member of his squad he led into slaughter. He is driven by guilt as he feels responsible for the deaths of his squad members. As soon as he gets patched up in Hawaii and heads to the pacific, he becomes daring to the point of taking one-man suicide commando raids, refusing to risk his men. As the movie progresses, he grows to like Ben Yahzee. And he starts to feel conflict when he thinks about his priorities of protecting the code first, and the codetalker second.
I could've handled that storyline, despite its predictability. But it gets worse and worse as the plot moves on. War movie clichés just keep on piling on top of each other. Enders gets a love interest in guise of his nurse Rita Sweldon (Frances O' Connor of A.I. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE), who's almost sole task in the movie is to write him letters and to provide voice-overs as Enders reads them (once he refuses to read her last letter, I'm actually relieved after hearing so many of them). You have Enders' superior Major Mellitz (Jason Isaacs of THE PATRIOT) a by-the-book heartless officer. You have a racist soldier (Noah Emmerich of THE TRUMAN SHOW) who gets saved by one of the Navajos and then changes his attitude because of it. You even have several soldiers telling tales of their past at a campfire. Don't these guys watch old war movies? Don't they know that as soon as they tell stories of hope and regret, they'll die near the end?
The clichés may make the movie bad, but the war elements make the movie almost unwatchable. Not because they are violent, but because they are hardly convincing. First of all, there's the code. I know that the Navajo codetalkers really existed (they were featured on the National Geographic channel once, but I missed that feature). But how their code is used in the movie is underwhelming. In the movie, the code's sole purpose is for calling airstrikes. is this practical? Since their enemies cannot move their war machinery quickly enough, why not just call the bombers in using plain English (At one point, Pvt. Yahzee does do this. So much for the code)? It would make a few seconds difference, while the enemies need much more than that to escape. I'm sure the code would have been much more useful for longer range communication across countries, but even John Woo couldn't make that exciting enough.
Then there are the battle front scenes, which despite all the explosions and special effects, are one big mess (hence the comparison to Michael Bay). Once the Allies land on Saipan, you don't know where they're advancing, or where their enemies are. The only time we know where who is where, is when a map of the Allies' advancement is shown between scenes. Recent notable movies like SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, BLACK HAWK DOWN, and WE WERE SOLDIERS, know how to make sense of the mayhem. Here there is no sense. For example, the Americans are advancing in an open space, yet the Japanese are in entrenched positions, yet it is the Japanese who suffer huge casualties. You explain to me how they do that. The code? Puh-leeeze.
And then their are the hand-to-hand and gun battles, which are cartoon-like. Watching all of those soldiers fly through the air over explosion after explosion, made me feel I was watching a Filipino action flick. You can even notice victims vibrate violently after being shot by gunfire. Watch heads fly back as the heroes can't miss, and witness the Japanese who can't hit the side of a barn. Near the end, when Enders attempts to save his comrade, he gets shot in almost every limb I can think off, yet he somehow prevails. That's some special effect.
It's too bad the good actors in this movie hardly make a difference (more of dents). Nicholas Cage is always superb at playing flawed characters, and even action heroes, but this dumb scenario undermines his efforts. Adam Beach draws our attention at times with his noble traits, but most of the time he seems too noble, to the point of naivety. Frances O'Connor and Jason Isaacs who are very talented actors, are wasted with their useless roles. I don't think any actor could have saved this project.
John Woo is one of the best action directors around, capable of filming the most beautiful and almost poetic action scenes, but he is the wrong director for this movie. This movie's sensibilities are totally out of step with this day and age's view of war. Ever since Spielberg's SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, war has been vilified as brutal, unforgiving, and senseless. Mr. Woo romanticizes his action, and war is the wrong place for it. If this picture were released 20 to 30 years ago, it probably would have been a big hit, but at present, it looks ridiculous and insensitive. All its implications of heroism and irony would probably be intriguing in an action or adventure film, but placing it against a backdrop of something more interesting such as the Navajo participation in World War II, makes it metaphorical mumbo jumbo.
WINDTALKERS opens and ends with breathtaking views of Arizona's Monument Valley with fascinating glimpses at the Navajo who live there. It's the middle of the movie that fails us. It pretends to be the Navajo's story when it is really about Joe Enders'. It's a tragedy that such an opportunity has been missed to tell their contribution with the dignity it deserves. Instead we get another commercialized film disguised as something meaningful. I do hope this tale gets retold, but with more heart and less spectacle. Here's hoping.
Posted by FLIPCRITIC at August 2, 2002 12:00 AM