Windtalkers (2002)

33% of critics liked it
(166 reviews)
55% of users liked it
(64,000 ratings)

Loosely based on a real-life operation during World War II, this action-adventure from director John Woo stars Nicolas Cage as Joe Enders, a Marine traumatized by the loss of his entire platoon in the Solomon Islands during an ambush he believes was deadlier than necessary due to his indecision.… More Loosely based on a real-life operation during World War II, this action-adventure from director John Woo stars Nicolas Cage as Joe Enders, a Marine traumatized by the loss of his entire platoon in the Solomon Islands during an ambush he believes was deadlier than necessary due to his indecision. Suffering from eardrum damage in Hawaii, Joe manages to be declared fit for duty once again thanks to a sympathetic nurse (Frances O'Connor), but his new assignment isn't what he expects. Joe is ordered to safeguard a Navajo soldier named Ben Yahzee (Adam Beach) because the military has developed a new secret code based on the near-dead Navajo language that is proving unbreakable to the Japanese. Any soldier that speaks Navajo is an immediate asset, including Ben and his pal, Charlie Whitehorse (Roger Willie). Joe's orders are to "baby sit" Ben during the invasion of Saipan, protecting him if possible, but -- if the code-talker's capture becomes imminent -- to kill him before he falls into enemy hands. Meanwhile, Charlie is to be guarded by affable harmonica player Ox Henderson (Christian Slater). Joe reluctantly accepts this new duty as a way to get back into the war, and in the ensuing carnage, his nearly suicidal acts of bravery make him a hero while Ben becomes paralyzed by fear. Determined to live up to Joe's example, Ben musters up his courage, even in the face of racism from a fellow soldier (Noah Emmerich), and ends up rescuing his own protector behind enemy lines by briefly posing as a Japanese soldier. Despite their growing mutual respect, Joe is eventually forced to take an action that threatens to shatter his bond with Ben, as the war's tragic losses strike closer to home for both men. Windtalkers co-stars Peter Stormare, Jason Isaacs, and Mark Ruffalo. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi

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Rating, Runtime: R, 2 hr. 14 min.
Directed By: John Woo
Written By: John Rice, Joe Batteer
Genres: Drama

In Theaters: Jun 14, 2002 Wide
On DVD: Oct 15, 2002
Studio: MGM/UA

Critic Reviews

Richard Schickel, TIME Magazine
The energy and conviction of the action sequences don't quite compensate for Windtalkers' emotional cliches and historical heedlessness.
Robert Koehler, Variety
A powerful premise turned into a stubbornly flat, derivative war movie.
Jeff Strickler, Minneapolis Star Tribune
The history is fascinating; the action is dazzling. They just don't work in concert.
Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune
It's the best new battle film since Black Hawk Down.
Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper
A relentless, bombastic and ultimately empty World War II action flick.
Peter Rainer, New York Magazine
I kept wishing I was watching a documentary about the wartime Navajos and what they accomplished instead of all this specious Hollywood hoo-ha.
Nell Minow, Common Sense Media
War film relies too much on relentless violence.
Daniel Etherington, Film4
Replete with Cage's finest angsty acting and John Woo's requisite concerns of friendship and rivalry in the face of violence.
Todd Gilchrist, IGN Movies
With Windtalkers, the glaring refutations of time, space and reality impress upon viewers the simple fact that Woo is at his best when he isn't attempting anything more significant than the most emptily satisfying explosion you're likely to enjoy - a scat
Scott Weinberg, DVDTalk.com
A couple of cool jolts and a few tips of the hat to cinematographer Jeffrey Kimball save this one from being a total disaster.
, Time Out
The screenwriters struggle to integrate the coded transmissions with the action, and the flamboyant set piece battles feel like so much empty rhetoric.
Steve Crum, Kansas City Kansan
What we get is a surprisingly entertaining film, corny as it is at times, that could have suited John Wayne. [Published 5-13-02]
David Grove, Film Threat
This is the kind of film where you think you can predict everything that's going to happen upon the first shot and you spend the rest of the film praying that you're wrong. But it's fun getting there.
Douglas Pratt, Movie City News
It is solid, satisfying entertainment, with terrific action scenes and a decent drama that never gets overplayed.
Tony Medley, tonymedley.com
I didn't expect a comedy.
Todd Gilchrist, FilmStew.com
Too celebratory of Woo's good guy-versus-bad guy, buddy-buddy ethos of action movies to rise above the limitations of the genre, and too obsessed with its own seriousness to be a truly 'serious' film.
Tim Robey, Daily Telegraph
A vast repository of hoary, honour-code clichés.
James O'Ehley, Movie Gurus
You'd probably be better off reading Catch 22 - even if it is for the fifth time . . .
Pablo Villaca, Cinema em Cena
A premissa é interessante, mas o terceiro ato do filme, quando Cage e Beach se tornam indestrutíveis, estraga o filme.
Forrest Hartman, Reno Gazette-Journal
It's tough to get worked up after watching superior films like Black Hawk Down and We Were Soldiers."

Read all 21 critic reviews

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Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)

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Featured Audience Ratings

Albert K

worst WWII movie ever. Plus, the setting of WWII was already broken once Nicolas Cage came onscreen.
Anthony L

In Windtalkers, John Woo takes a relatively interesting piece of War history and makes a thoroughly gratuitous, distasteful and disrespectful film out of it. At it's very best, it feels like bad theatre. A truly awful film with quite possibly the worst script ever written.
Jeff "

Windtalkers is by far one of the most innacurrate war films, I've seen in a long time. Nick Cage is very hit and miss, and Windtalkers is another miss for him. The plot is very bad, the actors, some good are wasted on this sorry excuse of a film. This is a terrible war film to… More
Windtalkers is by far one of the most innacurrate war films, I've seen in a long time. Nick Cage is very hit and miss, and Windtalkers is another miss for him. The plot is very bad, the actors, some good are wasted on this sorry excuse of a film. This is a terrible war film to avoid. This is a typical hollywood war film with really no research done, and it shows. A very bad film, with no elements in the story to make this a winner. This is a war film that will be remembered as a dud. Theres nothing interesting or good here. It's however a bad waste of time. Watch Letters From Iwo Jima instead.
Conner R

Not the greatest war movie or even close, but it's just really nice looking and well executed. It's got a really bizarre performance from Nicolas Cage because he's just so normal and real, showing once again that he does have a wide range of talent. The film's… More
Not the greatest war movie or even close, but it's just really nice looking and well executed. It's got a really bizarre performance from Nicolas Cage because he's just so normal and real, showing once again that he does have a wide range of talent. The film's message is obvious, but I really liked it all the same. You can't get someone better than John Woo to blow things up for you and still make it look tasteful.
Tim S

Sorry, this one just didn't do it for me. Felt convoluted and uninvolving, not to mention, uninteresting.
Film C

brilliant movie
xGary X

Traumatized WWII sergeant Nicolas Cage is charged with the safe keeping of a Navajo code talker and ordered to ensure he never falls into enemy hands-no matter what the cost. From the very start, it's obvious that this is a John Woo film; the combination of slickly directed… More
Traumatized WWII sergeant Nicolas Cage is charged with the safe keeping of a Navajo code talker and ordered to ensure he never falls into enemy hands-no matter what the cost. From the very start, it's obvious that this is a John Woo film; the combination of slickly directed action, sentiment and XY pleasing heroics is exactly what you'd expect of him. Woo is essentially a one trick pony; he is very good at action set pieces and this is no exception. The battle sequences are very well staged but often times it felt like the action was a little too relentless. Cage bulldozes through the enemy forces like Schwarzenegger on PCP and it feels like the characters are just a little too disposable. For this reason, anyone expecting a gritty, believable war film should steer clear. But although the characters are rather stereotypical and the culture clash aspect of the story a little simplistic and patronizing, the cast are perfectly likable and it never descends too far into the kind of mush Woo is capable of at his worst. Not exactly deep or insightful, but it's a perfectly serviceable action film that just happens to be set during a war.
Lorenzo v

This has got to be the most retarded war film I have ever seen. John Woo desperately tries to make this a cinematical achievement he didn't notice that the more big unnecessary explosions he makes the more retarded and boring this film gets. From the awkward action scenes to the… More
This has got to be the most retarded war film I have ever seen. John Woo desperately tries to make this a cinematical achievement he didn't notice that the more big unnecessary explosions he makes the more retarded and boring this film gets. From the awkward action scenes to the hilarious and stupid dialogs, this film is every shade of wrong. I had to actually painstakingly tread almost over two hours of this crappy heap of junk shit. This film single-handedly destroyed one of my favorite film genres ever. They tried to blend in a backstory that concerns Sgt Enders' (Nicolas Cage) past and the wrong decisions he's made and it still haunts him after all this time yadda yadda. They tried to give Enders some sympathy votes from the audience because he was just following orders and all that stuff. I don't know about you but I really think this sympathy ploy failed miserably. Not that I'm a man with a heart made out of icicles , its just that the way the director did it is just too plain, dull, very un-involving and boring. The war scenes <b>wasn't</b> a sight to behold. The camera angles is way too awkward and from a a guy who've seen a lot of war films, maybe the actors needed more time in boot camp. Talk about awwwwwkard. John Woo should learn a thing or two from 'Saving Private Ryan' before making another war flick. This one is a disgrace to war film lovers everywhere. <b>2/5</b>
Al S

An oustanding war movie. An engagging, riveting, deeply moving and excellent movie. A pulse-pounding and exhilerating action-packed drama. It's brilliant, absorbing, heart-pounding and extroadinary. A breathtaking and edge of your seat film loaded with explosive action sequences… More
An oustanding war movie. An engagging, riveting, deeply moving and excellent movie. A pulse-pounding and exhilerating action-packed drama. It's brilliant, absorbing, heart-pounding and extroadinary. A breathtaking and edge of your seat film loaded with explosive action sequences and very powerful drama. Nicolas Cage is magnificent, turning a very powerful and stirring performance. Adam Beach is truly teriffic. Christian Slater is fantastic. One of Director, John Woo's finest achivements ever.
Lafe F

It's a powerful movie with a fresh story. The likeable characters, and not the war action, are what make this movie good.
Lanning :

Actually, Walter, I've sat through this one, but I definitely agree it's nothing to write home to mother about.
Dean !

A very good film with huge battle scenes that reminded me of Saving Private Ryan. It's a good story if a little drawn out, but the action/battle scenes are on a huge scale. Quite different to most films directed by John Woo.
Bobby H

A typical war movie, but a great one at that. The only negative is that it's not all that historical, but, considering I dont think there were really going for that as much as they were just another hollywood war movie, it was great and definatly worth watching!
Jens S

John Woos take on a little known but pretty interesting historic detail from World War Two. While nicely shot and with a lot of action, Woos directing style with his slow-mo and coreographed explosions and does not really match with war scenes. Neither does James Horner's musical… More
John Woos take on a little known but pretty interesting historic detail from World War Two. While nicely shot and with a lot of action, Woos directing style with his slow-mo and coreographed explosions and does not really match with war scenes. Neither does James Horner's musical score, which would fit to a fun action movie but no war drama. That being said, the showdown is rather exciting and while being slow at some points the movie always manages to entertain. It's far from being as moving as Saving Private Ryan or Thin red Line, though.
Aaron N

A long war movie that is too much about it's action scenes and not enough about it's title. Cage does what he can, despite being too much the leading man, when it should be Beach, the windtalker. Woo gets action, but that's not hard for him to come up with.
Khris N

Totally undderated!! Wonderful story, action and performances. A modern day take on war by a masterful action director - and good cast.
Grant B

john woo just isn't a great director.... it started out really great, but went downhill pretty quick
Joseph E

I know it wasn't a spectacular tribute to the Code Talkers, but If all it was , was "Drama, and Suntitles, most would haven't of even cared, let alone even watched it at all. This film, by "An ACtion Director(The One who did the super hit"Face/Off), made it… More
I know it wasn't a spectacular tribute to the Code Talkers, but If all it was , was "Drama, and Suntitles, most would haven't of even cared, let alone even watched it at all. This film, by "An ACtion Director(The One who did the super hit"Face/Off), made it alot more than that, and for me, it was all you could expect!
Marcus W

Cage is a soldier who is disillusioned with life until he becomes the guardian of a Navajo code-guy whom must be killed to protect the code, if necessary. They bond, each becomes stronger and there's lots and lots of 'splosions and people flying - due to said… More
Cage is a soldier who is disillusioned with life until he becomes the guardian of a Navajo code-guy whom must be killed to protect the code, if necessary. They bond, each becomes stronger and there's lots and lots of 'splosions and people flying - due to said 'splosions. A perfectly average film.
Lee K

not a bad movie however there is alot better war pics out there to rent