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Windtalkers

2002

John Woo

Nicolas Cage, Adam Beach, Christian Slater, Peter Stormare ...

5.7

26,680

War. Action During World War II, U.S. Marine Joe Enders (Cage) is assigned to protect Ben Yahzee (Beach) -- a Navajo code talker, the Marines' new secret weapon against the Japanese. Enders' orders are to protect his code talker, but if Yahzee should fall into enemy hands, he's to "protect the code at all costs." Against the backdrop of the horrific Battle of Saipan, when capture is imminent, Enders is forced to make a decision: if he can't protect ... [+]

	Media	Author	Review
		Roger Ebert Chicago Sun-Times	"That's a fascinating, little-known story and might have made a good movie. Alas, the filmmakers have buried it beneath battlefield cliches (...) Rating: ★★ (out of 4)"
		Peter Bradshaw The Guardian	"A merely competent action war pic, boasting neither Woo's trademark balletic violent set-pieces nor any convincing insight (...) Rating: ★★ (out of 5)"
		William Thomas Empire	"A lacklustre epic which, while fudging its points about morality and loyalty in combat, also renders the spectacle decidedly underwhelming (...) Rating: ★★ (out of 5)"
		Robert Koehler Variety	"A powerful premise turned into a stubbornly flat, derivative war movie"
		Rex Reed The New York Observer	"It's like the first 25 minutes of Saving Private Ryan stretched over two hours. I liked it a lot, but the weak and the skittish are hereby warned."
		Lou Lumenick New York Post	"A depressing example of how even the most promising subjects can get turned into sentimental mush by Hollywood"
		Time Out	"Woo conjures several quite moving scenes (...) But the screenwriters struggle to integrate the coded transmissions with the action, and the flamboyant set piece battles feel like so much empty rhetoric."
		Paul Tatara CNN	"No amount of burning, blasting, stabbing, and shooting can hide a weak script."

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