Having lived on the Navajo reservation for over twenty years and heard stories about the Navajo Code talkers, I was really looking forward to seeing how John Woo dealt with the material in Windtalkers. Even after hearing some negative buzz about the film, I was still anxiously hoping for redeeming value, since it covers a relatively little-known aspect of WWII. I headed to the theater with a close friend, whose grandfather is one of the surviving Code talkers who served in Guadalcanal, Guam, and Okinawa.

Although Woo makes some good choices by using a few real Navajos as extras in striking Monument Valley (much loved and photographed by John Ford), by casting Roger Willie as Charlie Whitesinger, and accurately translating Willie's Navajo into English (unlike much of the dialogue in Outlaw Josey Wales), Navajos will question Woo's credibility with a silly cigarette tobacco “ceremony” and his reliance on stereotypes. Woo shocks Navajos to the core with a scene that is strictly taboo—something that would never happen in real life, involving the dog tags of a dead man being placed on a young Navajo child. This is simply not done, and whatever consultant Woo hired for authenticity should be brought to task--I suspect, however, that Woo composed this scene for “dramatic” intent without regard for the Navajo culture, so he deserves any criticism he receives.

For the first major motion picture to portray Navajo Code talkers, I'd expect a measure of respect for the historical accuracy and for the Navajo culture, but Woo places his priorities on making a pretty, cinematic picture and dealing with the same issues of conflict and honor that he's done before in films like The Killer and Hard Boiled. Instead of emphasizing the role of the Navajo Code talkers in the Pacific campaign, John Woo spends multi-millions massaging his ego with another signature John Woo flick--complete with brilliantly lit orange, yellow, and red explosions, flying bodies, and a Mexican stand-off or two. After such an exhaustive cinematic display during the overlong 133 minute film that also attacks the viewer aurally with an overly loud and repetitious James Horner score, all one can say is “Yeah, it's John Woo.”

He takes one small aspect of the Codetalker situation and molds the entire film around that point—the idea that the Navajos are little more than communication cattle fodder for the military, which assigns a personal Anglo "protector" to each Codetalker—not to protect the man, but to kill the Navajo Code talker in case of Japanese capture. Indeed this is historically accurate, a fact that never came out publicly until a few years ago. My friend's grandfather never found out until much later either, so the Code talkers were unaware of the true nature of their personal protectors. Woo tweaks the secrecy of Sergeant Joe Enders' (Nicolas Cage) mission for dramatic purposes; otherwise, the traditional Woo confrontational scene between Ben Yazzie (Adam Beach) and Enders would lose potency.

Filmmakers are allowed artistic license to narrow the subject, so focusing on Nicolas Cage's conflict between soldierly duty and personal feelings of friendship is not a bad way to go. Unfortunately, Woo pads the story with little substance, preferring to rely on cliché and his signature pieces. Consult any previous war film for the plot devices--platoon members who hate each other and must have a fist fight, the guy who offers a memento to a buddy and pleads with him to pass it on to his wife, the heroically implausible act that succeeds against all odds, and the impossible situation where a handful of men are surrounded by hundreds of the faceless enemy and will be saved at the last second.

Substantive information is severely lacking. For the island-hopping warfare of the Pacific, secure communications were vital, and the Japanese had successfully decoded all the American messages, so how is the Navajo language different? Woo neglects to cue the audience about the only code that the Japanese never deciphered, despite capturing a Navajo soldier. The movie doesn't show this (Woo relies only on a black and white photograph of a bloody soldier), but historical records reveal that the Navajo did tell the Japanese that he understood the Navajo words, but it was all gibberish to him--something the Japanese had difficulty understanding. A scene from the Japanese perspective could have communicated a great deal about the code, but Woo chooses to keep the enemy at a distance and only good for flying across the screen against his explosive effects.

Rated by linguists as the most difficult to learn, the Navajo language has many sounds from deep inside the throat not heard in English, plus it is extremely descriptive, making it relatively easy for native speakers to tweak their coded messages. These concepts are not demonstrated via Woo's film, which simply shows how the Navajo word for "tortoise" is used for "tank" or the word for "hummingbird" is substituted for helicopter. The small samples of simplistic code (often spoken in English) from Windtalkers makes it unbelievable that the Japanese never cracked the code.

One standard Navajo joke is translated loosely in a scene that doesn't play as funny in English, but it does indicate that one of the screenwriters was in contact with a Navajo. During the poker table scene Injun hating Corporal Charles Rogers (Noah Emmerich) calls Yazzie "chief" and Yazzie humorously responds that he must have seen his "war bonnet" in the shower. It's much funnier in the original Navajo, which describes the tip of the penis as a "war hat" because Navajo soldiers saw similarities.

The real star Code talker is native Navajo-speaking Roger Willie, a non-actor who deserved the top billing but is bumped to supporting status since Nicolas Cage is the "name" actor, and Adam Beach has a list of acting credits (Smoke Signals and Joe Dirt). Undoubtedly Willie was consulted for much of the spoken Navajo, and he does a credible protection ceremony even though he's not a medicine man. He should have been asked for other advice to avoid some cultural taboos. Willie also lends a natural touch of credible Navajo style humor to the film.

But cultural accuracy isn't a priority for John Woo. He just wants his film to look good and deal with the same themes he's done numerous times in his Hong Kong canon. Credit him for doing his research well enough to copy John Ford's selection of Monument Valley as the most beautiful place in Navajoland for a few location shots and for using a few local Navajos as Navajo extras to lend a measure of authenticity, but people can get more factual details about the Code talkers by visiting the Burger King in that area (they have a display case with artifacts). For those unfamiliar with the Navajo Code talkers, Woo's Windtalkers provides an introductory appetizer that may inspire some to research the subject. For that reason alone, I'm glad that the film was made--it provides discussion material that may spark additional interest in the Code talkers.

Unfortunately, most people rely on films for their historical background, so Woo's film does a disservice by perpetuating generic myths about Native American culture and placing the only major film about the Navajo Code talkers against a cartoonish backdrop of explosive cinematic Woo-fare, doing little to further our education about WWII.

The real Code talkers were truly a heroic group who went through hell for the U.S., and they deserved a better representation of their contributions. My friend's grandfather was offered a free screening of Windtalkers, but he turned down the invitation for health reasons. He also doesn't like to think of those days and the horrors that he experienced. Had he witnessed Woo's cinematic fantasy, he would likely have more nightmares about future generations that will think this film has anything to do with actual events.