Quartile rating: 6.5/10 · 1 rating
Joe Enders is a gung-ho Marine assigned to protect a "windtalker" - one of several Navajo Indians who were used to relay messages during World War II because their spoken language was indecipherable to Japanese code breakers.
Windtalkers takes a genuinely fascinating historical premise—the Navajo code talkers of WWII—but squanders much of its potential by centering the story on Nicolas Cage's tortured white Marine rather than the Navajo soldiers themselves. The plot is formulaic action-war fare with a predictable arc, and the ending feels melodramatic and telegraphed. Acting is serviceable; Cage and Adam Beach bring conviction but the script limits them. John Woo's direction delivers competent, kinetic battle sequences though his trademark stylistic flourishes feel slightly out of place in a WWII setting. The historical subject matter gives it some novelty points, but the execution is conventional enough to keep that from being exceptional.