BEFORE: There were still a few renegade firecrackers going off in my neighborhood as I started watching this just after midnight - the sounds of the street eerily mimicking the sounds of the battlefield in the movie. Moving back to WW2's Pacific theater - and linking from "Patton", George C. Scott was in "The Hindenburg" with Anne Bancroft, who was also in "Honeymoon in Vegas" with Nicolas Cage. That's the best I can manage tonight.
I am adding the James Bond series to the list, after realizing that I've only seen 2 of them all the way through ("Diamonds Are Forever" and "The Living Daylights", which may not even be the best two). I figured when I was done with the list, I'd treat myself to a Bond box set, but the Encore channel is running 19 Bond films this month, and I can't pass up the savings. It means my list won't get any smaller for the next 2 1/2 weeks, but that's my cross to bear.
THE PLOT: Two U.S. Marines in WWII are assigned to protect Navajo Marines who use their native language as an unbreakable radio cypher.
AFTER: All in all, I think this one was pretty well put together. As special effects have improved over the years, war films have become more and more realistic. Which is great news for filmmaking, but can also have a detrimental effect, watching soldiers realistically getting blown up is starting to wear on me. Whatever's happening to me at work, it can't be as bad as getting shot in the trenches or blown up by a grenade. I'll try to remember that next week while I'm working a booth at Comic-Con.
The tension in this film comes from the real-life premise - sending Navajos in with the infiltrating U.S. Marines, so they can radio back critical information about the Japanese forces in code, without the Japanese knowing what the U.S. soldiers know. Mostly it's the location of key armaments, so the Windtalkers need to be on the front line, yet the Marines are tasked with keeping them safe. It almost doesn't make sense when you think of it that way.
Also, the Marines assigned to protect them are also tasked with not letting them fall into enemy hands, which could mean killing them to protect the code. So the same soldiers in charge of keeping the Navajo safe are also instructed to kill them if necessary. Again, it almost doesn't make sense, but that's the military for you.
There's an extensive list of nitpick points on IMDB, but since I didn't notice them myself, I'm obliged to ignore them. I do wonder if this film could have been better with another actor in the lead, since the presence of Nicolas Cage (last heard in "The Ant Bully") was a bit distracting. If felt like some of his trademark hangdog loser characters from films like "Honeymoon in Vegas" or "Leaving Las Vegas" creeped in, and this was supposed to be a decorated skilled soldier.
NITPICK POINT: If a soldier had a hearing problem and/or an inner-ear injury, hiding that fact might get him back to the front lines, but it would endanger not only him, but his fellow soldiers, if you think about it.
NITPICK POINT #2: It sure was nice of the Japanese soldiers to always scream, just before attacking the U.S. soldiers from a hiding place. Very sporting of them to announce their location that way, allowing the Marines to kill them first.
I don't know if this is a N.P. or not, perhaps I just don't know enough about military tactics, but it seems like the ground troops needed to get close enough to the enemy guns to determine their coordinates, then call in air support to bomb the guns. But why not just fly a plane overhead first to see where the guns are, then maybe bomb them at the same time? Am I missing something, does it not work that way?
Also starring Adam Beach (last seen in "Flags of Our Fathers"), Christian Slater (last seen in "3000 Miles to Graceland"), Peter Stormare (last seen in "Mercury Rising"), Mark Ruffalo (last seen in "The Avengers"), Noah Emmerich, with a cameo from Jason Isaacs (last seen in "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1").
RATING: 7 out of 10 bottles of sake
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