Windtalkers

Auch als simpler, aber effektvoller Actionfilm (siehe Operation: Broken Arrow) wäre Windtalkers für die heutige Zeit zu langsam und zu schwerfällig. Er will aber kein simpler Actionfilm sein. Die Schüsse und Explosionen kombiniert er mit der Indianerthematik und Humanismus. Und zwar so, dass das Ergebnis wie ein fauler Apfel schmeckt. Der Indianergeist ist nämlich ziemlich unglaubwürdig und steht im Kontrast zu der Selbstzweckmäßigkeit der heldenhaften Actionszenen (die Zeitlupenaufnahmen von Nicolas Cage nach seinen erfolgreichen One-Man-Show-Aktionen). Zu der Selbstzweckmäßigkeit der Actionszenen passt auch nicht die ganze humanistische Ebene des Films. Damit hängt auch das Konzept der Japaner zusammen, die als Rasse dargestellt werden, die verdammt werden soll. Kurzum, weder eine ordentliche Action im Stil von Black Hawk Down noch "etwas mehr" im Stil von Der Soldat James Ryan. Hier hat jemand entweder nicht gewusst, was er drehen möchte, oder er hat es nur vermasselt. (19.08.2002)

Control question: I wonder, comrades, do you know why there weren't any white doves flying in slow motion? You don’t know, do you? Ha! Look, I’ll tell you exactly, comrades. Such feathers can’t withstand a flamethrower attack! Now you know, but as if you didn't. Otherwise, it’s political subversion and a military trial! Starring a brooding Indian nanny (by the way, it's one of Cage’s acting fails) and her ward, who gradually digs up the war axe on Saipan to split the peace pipe into tiny pieces. Although he didn’t go through training, the most adept codebreaker here turns out to be John Woo, because I still haven’t understood what it was supposed to be about. It wasn’t about passing information in Navajo-American slang on the Pacific battlefield. Is it a slightly pathetic drama about friendship and understanding amidst the chaos of war? Or is it about the inner demons of the white man and subsequent redemption? Or did the producer-pushed director create a pure action film in the style of John Wayne? In that overcooked action, all that was missing was Jean-Claude, arriving on a motorcycle with a funny nineties' hairstyle, kicking some butt on both fighting sides, and mistaking Cage's M1928A1 Thompson submachine gun strap for a rattlesnake, only to bite through it. (13.06.2022)

A solidly directed film that became a huge flop. It’s hard to say what went wrong. Perhaps it needed a better script, but what it certainly lacks is at least one scene that would grab the viewer by the heart, though some scenes, especially the ones that present the Indians more closely, e.g. while making music, are sensitively filmed. And Nicolas Cage? He's not a bad actor, I can easily believe him as a soldier, but he is, let's face it, a bit jaded of late and doesn't have the potential to help hold a film commercially anymore. (30.11.2002)

John Woo is a director of action films and clearly does not feel comfortable in any other genre. War, in his interpretation, lacks sufficient impact. The only problem, but a crucial one at that, is that he behaves as if he is shooting his next action masterpiece and tries to insert almost balletic scenes into the film, which then have no chance of appealing to me when it is because soldiers have just been killed. The brutal dose of detachment, characteristic of his previous works, seems plainly laughable here. When the main hero in The Killer or Hard Boiled stands against multiple adversaries, it is exaggerated but also stylish. But when Nicolas Cage charges into the trenches like an unguided missile in Windtalkers and starts mowing down enemies without suffering any injury, I can only shake my head. On top of that, the Japanese are portrayed as complete idiots here, popping out of hiding with their weapons lowered and their hands flailing, running directly in front of American cannons. The refined form and planes passing by the camera or a series of exploding tanks take your breath away. However, the content is desperately trivial. (08.07.2007)

I'm pretty disappointed in this. Pretty much. The action doesn't have the bite that the other John Woo films have, Nicolas Cage doesn't really fit, and the story of Christian Slater and Roger Willie was much better and more emotional than the story of the main characters. If I wanted to compare it to Woo’s Hong Kong work, it would be even less so. As it is, it's a slightly above average war movie and a big step down in John Woo's career. (06.08.2002)