John Woo has made a career of slow motion action sequences and Howard Hawks-type love-amongst-men team-ups. Think of Woo’s A Better Tomorrow to know precisely which branches The Wild Bunch and Red River occupy on the family tree. Windtalkers nestles snugly in that tree as well, with its story of tough guys taking care of each other in the line of fire.
Windtalkers pairs burned-out vet Sergeant Joe Enders (Nicolas Cage) and Navajo Code Talker Private Ben Yahzee (Adam Beach) on a vitally important mission. Sgt. Enders has been told that the code is more important than the man, and if Private Yahzee falls into enemy hands he is to be killed. Along the way the obligatory “I ain’t takin’ no guff from no Injun” scenes take place, as do some impressive combat sequences.
To say Nick Cage does a great job is to state the given in this geometric proof. This man made even Snake Eyes and 8mm watchable, and this time he has some decent material to work with. Enders shoulders the horror of past combat heavily; so heavily that he scams his way back to the front lines. Knowing Cage is a comics fan of about the right age, I’m sure he saw this picture as his chance to do a G.I. Combat flick.
(“A diverse detail of soldiers on an unusual mission overcome internal malfunctions and take on the enemy” covers most every story in that classic comic and, of course, Sgt. Rock. The only thing missing from this film was an emblem at the end reading “Make War No More.”)
More surprising is Adam Beach as Yahzee. Beach burst onto the scene with the incredible Smoke Signals and even entertained as Kicking Wing in The Adventures of Joe Dirt. With his winning smile and expressive face, Beach has the potential to become at least an indie darling if not break into the full-on mainstream. Sadly, I fear that if not careful his career may fall prey to the musical-nationality trap that stranded Lou Diamond Phillips at Wolf Lake.
The solid supporting cast features enjoyable showings from Christian Slater as another soldier with the same orders as Enders and Peter Stormare as the gruff “Viking.” These two have been around forever, but the real find of Windtalkers is Roger Willie as the unit’s other Code Talker. Looking at his bio it is surprising that he hasn’t played either Gary Farmer’s son or flashback self.
Frances O’Connor sleepwalks through her role as the nurse who helps Enders out of the hospital. The gimmick of unanswered letters that connect many of the scenes is an interesting one, but it feels tacked on and painfully unresolved. Either the romance plot was added at a late date out of fear that the male relationships seemed too close for middle America, or much of the subplot was trimmed away for time. Either way, the romance needed to be beefed up or dropped completely.
While Windtalkers thrills as a combat picture, its racial themes are handled oddly. In a briefing the American soldiers hear that the island they are taking is the homeland of the occupying Japanese. It is a relief that this point is simply made, left for the audience to pick up and process rather than be a set-up for one of the Code Talkers to deliver a heartfelt monologue on how they are doing the same thing the white man did to them.
At the same time, the racism of the men in green appears with all the subtlety of an afterschool special. At one point one of the Americans resists Ben because he’s Navajo, then because he looks like the enemy. Again, it feels like the schizophrenia that comes from an artist working with the studio (and the ever-dreaded focus group) trying to fix problems or simply sell more tickets through last-minute shuffling.
Windtalkers is a strange duck. At times it is everything you could want and at other times it’s the clichéd pap you’d expect from a Simon West, not a John Woo. For the most part the story works as classic combat escapism, but the seams of post-production tinkering show a little too often for a whole-hearted recommendation.
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