WINDTALKERS (DVD Review) - 21/1/07

Any type of war is an awful thing and foremost in my mind is that anything like this film has to be treated as walking a thin line between entertainment and reality. Coming across very much like an "in your face" close-up documentary Director John Woo's "Windtalkers" covers another very little known aspect of the Second World War in the battle for the Japanese island of Saipan. Codes were continually being broken by the Japanese so the American forces drafted in Native Americans with the use of Navajo Indians and a code based on their language which the Japanese never managed to break. Forgetting the Hollywood aspects of this film we get the casual inherent racism manifested by the Americans towards the Navajo which is always ugly in any form especially as they are supposedly fighting on the same side? The Japanese are pretty much faceless in this film as they repeatedly overwhelm the American forces again and again dying in the attempt in foolhardy gestures. A very strong cast (Nicolas Cage, Adam Beach, Peter Stormare, Noah Emmerich, Mark Ruffalo, Christian Slater) holds this all together but it's a very bloody film as limbs fly and the horrendous terror takes hold. War is not fun as the vicious reality comes home to both the audience and the characters in this movie.

SPECIAL FEATURES: Actor's Bootcamp - The featurette covering the physical Marine training that the actors went through. Bravo Special - Making of... and Behind The Scenes Photo Gallery. Two Feature Length Audio Commentaries. Fly On The Set Diaries: Four raw set pieces observe the set-up and construction of integral scenes (With a link to jump to the completed scene in the film).

Region 2 (UK) - Rated 15. Colour - PAL. Running Time: 2 Hrs. 9 Mins. Soundtrack: English/Czech 5.1. Dolby Digital with Subtitles for both and HOH. Widescreen Version 16:9 - 2.40:1. MGM 2002. 22896DVD MZ1 / ISBN # 5050070008098>