Windtalkers

Having earned Hollywood's respect with blockbusters like Face/Off and Mission: Impossible 2, Hong Kong action master John Woo lends his signature style to serious World War II action in Windtalkers. Recognizing the long-forgotten contribution of Navajo "code talkers," whose use of an unbreakable Navajo-language radio code was instrumental in defeating the Japanese, the film serves as an admirable tribute to those Native American heroes. Unfortunately, it falls short of importance with its standard-issue story about a battle-scarred sergeant (Nicolas Cage) assigned to protect a code-talker (Adam Beach, from Smoke Signals), with unspoken orders to kill him if Japanese capture is imminent. This allows for an involving drama of hard-won friendship, but cardboard supporting characters suffer in the shadow of nonstop action that's as repetitious as it is technically impressive. Windtalkers is best appreciated as a more substantial vehicle for Woo's trademark ballet of bullets. --Jeff Shannon

Movie Details

Cast: Nicolas Cage, Adam Beach, Christian Slater, Peter Stormare, Noah Emmerich, Mark Ruffalo, Brian Van Holt, Martin Henderson, Roger Willie, Frances O'Connor, Christian Slater, Jason Isaacs, Billy Morts
MPAA Rating: R
Running time: 134 min
DVD Aspect Ratios: 2.35:1

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DVD Features:

Available Subtitles: English, Spanish, French, Portuguese

Available Audio Tracks: English (Dolby Digital 5.1), French (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround)

Commentary by: director John Woo and producer Terence Chang

Commentary by: actors Nicolas Cage and Christian Slater

Commentary by: actor Roger Willie and consultant Albert Smith

Never-before-seen director's cut with over 20 minutes of new footage

Personal on-camera introduction by John Woo

"The Code Talkers: A Secret Code of Honor" historical documentary

"American Heroes: A Tribute to Navajo Code Talkers" WWII tribute piece

"The Music of Windtalkers" featurette

Battle sequence multi-view of four key action scenes

Four fly-on-the-set scene diaries

"Actors' Boot Camp" featurette

Behind-the-scenes photo gallery

John Woo biography pages

John Woo liner notes

International rating:

Europe: 15
Australia: MA

DVD International release dates:
North America: Oct 15, 02