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Windtalkers

Windtalkers, the Director's Edition, on DVD

In the hands of another director, Windtalkers may have been a much better movie.

As it stands, it’s merely a good movie because, for the most part it forgets what it’s supposed to be about.

And while a director's cut often yields a better movie, this isn't really the cast this time either.

After all, while John Woo may be a great action director, when it comes to substance, you’d probably want someone like Christopher Nolan.

Windtalkers, alas, was a Hollywood war-movie flop. It's set in World War II, at a time when the United States Marines were using the Navajo language as an unbreakable code. Unfortunately, they knew that it might not stay unbreakable were the Navajo “codetalkers” to fall into the wrong hands. So they assign a marine to stick with the codetalker and make sure – by doing whatever it takes - that he doesn’t fall into enemy hands.

Nicolas Cage stars as Sergeant Joe Enders, assigned to stay with Private Ben Yahzee (Adam Beach). Enders knows he shouldn’t get close to Yahzee, because of what he may have to do if push comes to shove, but the two find themselves enjoying each other’s company and a friendship builds.

Windtalkers is a pretty good war movie. It’s no Saving Private Ryan or, even better, We Were Soldiers, but it does feature some excellent battle sequences. It also, unfortunately, features some huge war movie clichés (in fact, you can probably even figure out who lives and who dies).

John Woo, not surprisingly, does a great job with the action, but the whole plot about the Navajo code seems to play second fiddle to the bullets and explosions.

There are other problems, too.

For example, why does Enders’ nurse help him get back into battle (by helping him pass his hearing tests), if his hearing problem isn’t going to be a problem in battle? It’s a great opportunity for foreshadowing and drama, where he rises above his disability, but nothing comes of it. And why does there always have to be the one guy who stays racist until the (insert minority here) proves he isn't so worthless after all?

Cage, Beach, and supporters Noah Emmerich, Peter Stormare, Mark Ruffalo, Roger Willie and Christian Slater all do a good job, but Frances O’Connor is not given nearly enough to do.

Windtalkers had a great idea at its core, and could have been a phenomenal film, but they took the easy way out and it ended up as just another action/war movie.

The director's edition features only the 2.40:1 anamorphic widescreen version (and good for them!), rather than inflicting a Pan&Scan version on the audience. It also features a Dolby Digital 5.1 surround audio track (no additional dts track, alas). Both transfers of the film, this one and the original DVD release, appear to be exactly the same, which is by no means a bad thing.

The anamoprhic widescreen (16x9 TV compatible) picture quality is excellent. It's perfectly clear, with no grain or dust, and this contributes to making the action scenes particularly thrilling. You can see everything perfectly, though we did notice a tiny bit of halo effect during some of the daytime dramatic scenes. Still, it’s nothing to worry about.

The audio is exactly as should be, even without the dts choice. Planes fly in from the back of the room, drop bombs, and fly away in front of you. This is the kind of sound track that brings you into the action so much that you think there’s a war going on around you. You can hear bullets going off in every direction, explosions in every corner, and there’s even some shouting to be heard from the rear speakers. As far as audio tracks go, this is as good as we hope for.

The 20 or so minutes of new footage, unfortunately, doesn't add much to the film (that we could notice, anyway). It basically just adds a bit of superfluous action or drama. My main complaint with the movie is that there wasn't enough about the actual Windtalkers, and the new footage doesn't add anything to that aspect, so why is it even here?

But anyway…

This is the kind of DVD set that looks a lot better on the packaging than it actually is. Sure, it's a three-disc set, but it could have easily been cut down to two. The biggest flaw is that there isn't really any actual making-of footage; the closest being the multi-angle feature. Such an expensive and impressive looking movie should have a making-of documentary like the 150-minute one in the new Black Hawk Down deluxe edition.

But anyway…

Disc one features three audio commentaries, the first by director John Woo and producer Terence Chang. The two seem very proud of the work they've done (which is fine), but Woo seems a little too anti-war preachy, which comes off as more than a bit hypocritical from a person whose fortune and reputation have been made by inflicting mayhem on the world, even if only cinematic mayhem.

Still, we learn quite a bit about the shoot, with some nice anecdotes. The second track is by Nicolas Cage and Christian Slater, and this is easily the most fun. I enjoyed Slater's commentary for True Romance, and I'm a fan of Cage's work, so I was looking forward to this one. The two are entertaining together, but there are a few too many gaps of silence. The third commentary is by actor Roger Willie and Navajo Consultant Albert Smith, and is probably the most interesting but least entertaining. In fact, we learn more about the Navajo Code Talkers in this commentary than we did in the movie itself.

Disc two features a nearly half-hour documentary "The Code Talkers - A Secret Code of Honor." It tells a bit more of the history of the Code Talkers, and goes infinitely more in-depth than the movie. There are two featurettes, running 9 minutes and 5 minutes, and titled "American Heroes: A Tribute to Navajo Code Talkers" and "The Music of Windtalkers." The former pays tribute to the Code Talkers of WWII, but spends most of the time just running their names up the screen. The latter is exactly what you would expect: James Horner talks about scoring the film. Neither appears to be anything more than filler.

Pop in disc three and we get more, but not much. The multi-angle featurette is interesting, but needs to have been a lot longer to really be worthwhile. There is a 15-minute "Actors' Boot Camp" featurette that is pretty much like every other "Actors' Boot Camp" featurette ever done, four Fly-On-the-Set scene diaries, a behind-the-scenes photo gallery, and John Woo biography pages.

Had it actually been a three-disc set, rather than a two-disc set stretched into three discs, Windtalkers: Director's Edition would have been phenomenal. The three commentaries and decent extras make for a good DVD release, but don't be fooled by the three discs; it's just a marketing tool. Hard-core fans of the film should pick it up, but for casual viewers, the original release should fare just fine, considering it appears to be exactly the same transfer.

Windtalkers, from MGM Home Entertainment
153 minutes, anamorphic widescreen (2.40:1) 16x9 TV compatible, Dolby Digital 5.1
Starring Nicolas Cage, Adam Beach, Mark Ruffalo, Noah Emmerich and Christian Slater
Produced by John Woo, Terence Chang, Tracie Graham, Alison Rosenweig
Written by John Rice & Joe Batteer
Directed by John Woo.

 

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Updated May 13, 2006