Windtalkers

3/5 stars

I think I already knew this, but I’ve come to the conclusion that I don’t much like war movies. I think I used to; either that, or every time I think about watching one, I seem to remember liking them.

This was a movie about a pair of soldiers (Nicholas Cage and Christian Slater) who are assigned to protect two Navajo code-talkers (Adam Beach and Roger Willie) during WWII. The Navajo were used because their language was an un-crackable code, provided none of the Navajo speakers were captured and made to talk. So, more than protecting the so-called windtalkers, the soldiers’ job was to protect the code…at any cost.

The movie was well done, for what it was, but I’ve lost my stomach for watching men get blown up. Perhaps it’s because we currently have soldiers in Iraq who are facing this as I write this. Perhaps it’s just that the movies are starting to feel too real (though I’m certain men and women who have faced real combat would have something different to say). Perhaps it’s that I just finished reading The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien (a collection of short stories on the Vietnam war), and I kept telling myself that it didn’t seem like a real war story (though, again, if it was a real war story, I don’t think I could have sat through the whole thing).

For what it was, it was a good movie….just not my taste anymore.