Author Topic: Wind Talkers - New Movie (Read 473 times)

MuadDib of Dune · « **on:** May 27, 2002, 02:23:43 PM »

Anyone seen the trailer for the new movie "Wind Talkers"?

Story of the Amercian Indian servicemen who were utilized by the USMC (I think..maybe army) to speak a refined form their native language on battlefront communications channels in order to deny the Japanese evesdroppers any clue as to the intentions of allied forces in combat.

Could be interesting

eskimo2 · « **Reply #1 on:** May 27, 2002, 02:40:42 PM »

I've been looking forward to this movie for a long time. A friend of mine has a son who was an extra in it. I think it was filmed in Hawaii/Kawai.

eskimo

Dinger · « **Reply #2 on:** May 27, 2002, 08:49:58 PM »

John Woo directed it. Expect it to be stylized and violent. If Hollywood gives him enough rein, it'll be a tight story. Otherwise, it could be diffuse and confusing.

Kratzer · « **Reply #3 on:** May 28, 2002, 03:58:17 PM »

It was supposed to come out last summer, was pushed to November, and then was pushed again to this June...

Gotta wonder what that is about...

Sikboy · « **Reply #4 on:** May 28, 2002, 04:03:58 PM »

I'm not a big John Woo fan. In fact, I haven't seen a Woo movie that I've liked. Now, I've not seen any of his Hong Kong work, but considering his US Stuff, I was never very inspired. There aren't enough

in the world for me to write a review of his work lol.

On the other hand, I like Nick Cage, and it's a pretty cool historic setting (I'm not going to expect much accuracy, and I won't squeak about it when it's not there lol). I'll probably catch it in theaters, or on DVD at the least.

-Sikboy

AKDejaVu · « **Reply #5 on:** May 28, 2002, 04:12:15 PM »

I'm suprised John Woo is doing this one... it didn't look action packed at all.

The Indians were speaking Navajo... and the Japanese never broke the code. The movie seems to be based on their role in the military's eyes... and the fact that a body guard was assigned to them with strict orders to ensure the Indian did not fall into enemy hands (preferably without killing him).

AKDejaVu

MrBill · « **Reply #6 on:** May 28, 2002, 05:00:38 PM »

A bit more info and background

Lacking secure battlefield voice communications during the Great War, the Army employed Choctaws to encrypt voice communications, using their native language, itself encoded.

The Army studied the program even before war was declared in 1941, and during World War II employed Commanches, Choctaws, Kiowas, Winnebagos, Seminoles, Navajos, Hopis and Cherokees. The Marine Corps took the Army work and codified, expanded, refined and perfected it into a true security discipline, using Navajos exclusively. In campaigns against the enemy on many fronts, the Native American Codetalkers never made a mistake in transmission nor were their codes ever broken.

I have spoken with several of the code talkers who live in the Taos area.
Some of them are pretty colorful characters.

Kratzer · « **Reply #7 on:** May 29, 2002, 11:17:50 AM »

Watch 'the Killer', Sikboy.

The sound is Hong Kong quality, and the music will have you busting up, but it is a terrific film, and the best example of his Hong Kong work.

Dinger · « **Reply #8 on:** May 29, 2002, 11:55:15 AM »

The Killer is a masterpiece of direction and structure; and it's one of the bloodiest movies ever made. His US stuff isn't terribly good in comparison, largely because the producers have been taking stuff out to make it more palatable to a US audience. If you saw "Hard Target", and remember that shot where Wilford Brimley shoots an arrow, and you get slow motion of it going right behind the main heavy's head -- that is pure John Woo. But the movie as a whole wasn't great.

Kratzer · « **Reply #9 on:** May 29, 2002, 12:06:23 PM »

My wife even thinks 'the Killer' kicks ass, and she doesn't much go in for action movies.

It's got that certain something that you can't quite put your finger on.

devious · « **Reply #10 on:** May 29, 2002, 12:32:47 PM »

John Woo rules. Did you know he's an unacknowledged son of Kurt Tank ?

Daff · « **Reply #11 on:** May 29, 2002, 03:56:49 PM »

If you have to watch any John Woo movie, watch 'The Killer' and 'Hardboiled'. Most of his other Hong Kong stuff is pretty bad.
He deserves a lot of credit, though, as the two films above, pretty much revolutionised the action-movie genre. Before that, the style was Schwarzenegger and Stallone-style beef style films and people got fed up with it, but despite Woo's limited success in the US, the style still spread around. The Matrix is very much leans on his work with the way it's coreographed and edited.

Daff

Dinger · « **Reply #12 on:** May 29, 2002, 06:42:21 PM »

i wouldn't leave out "A Better Tomorrow".
And Daff's right. Just about anything associated with Quentin Tarantino derives pretty heavily from those films.

funkedup · « **Reply #13 on:** May 29, 2002, 06:44:46 PM »

It's not just the Matrix, just about every Hollywood action film in the last 5-7 years has borrowed or completely copied elements from the films Woo made in Hong Kong.

Sikboy · « **Reply #14 on:** May 30, 2002, 06:00:48 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by funkedup
It's not just the Matrix, just about every Hollywood action film in the last 5-7 years has borrowed or completely copied elements from the films Woo made in Hong Kong.

Too bad Woo himself couldn't borrow any of the good stuff.

Seriously though, I have a friend who works in Hollywood, and when he was in film school he just would NOT shut up about Woo. Whenever he wasn't talking about Noam Chomsky, or some anarchist that is. So add that to the fact that I can't stand his US stuff (and believe me, I was SUPER excited when I heard that a HK director was coming to Hollywood) has kept me away from watching HardBoiled or The Killer. But, I resolve here and now, to, by the end of this summer, send myself to the video store to get one of those movies, and return safely to my house to watch it.

-Sikboy