Windtalkers, the Director's Edition, on DVD
In the hands of another director, Windtalkers may have been a much
better movie.
As it stands, its merely a good movie because, for the most
part it forgets what its 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, youd 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 doesnt fall into enemy
hands.
Nicolas Cage stars as Sergeant Joe Enders, assigned to stay with
Private Ben Yahzee (Adam Beach). Enders knows he shouldnt get close to
Yahzee, because of what he may have to do if push comes to shove, but the two
find themselves enjoying each others company and a friendship builds.
Windtalkers is a pretty good war movie. Its 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
isnt going to be a problem in battle? Its 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
OConnor 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, its 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 theres a war going on around you. You can hear bullets
going off in every direction, explosions in every corner, and theres 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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