Windtalkers

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Movie
German title Windtalkers
Original title Windtalkers
Country of production United States
original language English ,
Japanese ,
Navajo
Publishing year 2002
length Theatrical Version 128 minutes,
Director's Cut 147 minutes
Age rating FSK 18
Rod
Director John Woo
script John Rice ,
Joe Batteer
production Terence Chang ,
Tracie Graham-Rice ,
Alison R. Rosenzweig ,
John Woo
music James Horner
camera Jeffrey L. Kimball
cut Jeff Gullo ,
Steven Kemper ,
Tom Rolf
occupation

Windtalkers is an American war film from the year 2002 by John Woo .

action

The Japanese armed forces succeed in conquering a large part of the Pacific region at the beginning of the Second World War . This can be attributed, among other things, to the superiority of the Japanese secret service , which manages to intercept and decrypt a large part of American radio traffic. Therefore, pulling US Navy in 1942 increased members of the Diné -Volkes (also known as Navajo) one to one on whose first language ( Navajo -based) message code to develop. This Navajo code initiates the counter-offensive of the USA in the Pacific War with around 400 Indian code speakers who are radio operators and telecommunications operators in the service of the Navy . Since the Japanese can not decipher the Diné language without a native speaker , protecting the Indians from capture is a top priority in order to preserve the most successful code in military history .

The highly decorated Marine - Sergeant 1944 Joe Enders receives the order, the Navajo private to protect Ben Yahzee under all circumstances. The Navajo Charlie Whitehorse is entrusted to the young Sergeant Ox Henderson. The four are involved in the battle for Saipan . Enders and Henderson initially keep their distance from the Navajo entrusted to them, knowing full well that they would have to accept their death in the event of capture in order to protect the message code. Because of their shared experiences in the turmoil of the Pacific War, this protective wall is noticeably softened. As a result, Enders does not manage to carry out his order to kill the radio operator entrusted to him so that the Japanese armed forces continue to be denied access to the Navajo code. Instead, he tries to live up to his mission by placing the integrity of the Navajo above the protection of the secret code and above his own life. In a final battle in which the two are surrounded, Ben wants Joe to do his job and kill him. But Joe, who is now deeply friends with the Navajo, shouldered the injured Ben and ran through the hail of bullets from the Japanese to his comrades on the other side. Ben is shot a couple of times, but not seriously injured. Together they manage to get on the safe side while their comrades fend off the Japanese armed forces. Bombers come to their aid and blow up the rest of the troops. Ben is enthusiastic about having made it, but it doesn't last long. Because Joe was badly wounded when he saved his friend. He dies in Ben's arms. At the end you see Ben with his family. He has Joe's badge and performs a Navajo ritual to commemorate the dead. His last words in this film are addressed to his son: "And if you tell about him, say he was my friend."

background

The islands of Saipan , Tinian and Aguijan

The film title "Windtalkers" is based on the Navajo name for the spark - "who talk to the wind" . The Navajo was not yet written, which is why the German and Japanese secret services were unable to decipher the message code . The film was shot based on real life in Hawaii , Utah, and California .

While the American armed forces in the film are doing well with the Japanese civilian population and even distributing painkillers to children in need, the reality was different. Many surviving families could not tolerate the occupation of their land by enemy soldiers and preferred an honorable death for their culture by jumping off the cliffs of Saipan, including women and children.

With a budget of 115 million US dollars and worldwide box office earnings of only 78 million US dollars, the film turned out to be one of the biggest film flops in recent cinema history.

Unlike the dramaturgically exaggerated portrayal in the film of killing a Navajo Code Talker rather than letting it fall into the hands of the enemy, in reality there were no such orders to kill one's own soldiers.

During World War II, the US flag had 48 stars

Another mistake that happened to many other art directors in films about this period is the representation of the flag of the United States with 50 stars. In fact, in 1944 the United States only had 48 states and the flag therefore had 48 stars  (picture) . Alaska and Hawaii did not become the 49th and 50th states of the United States until 1959.

The trailer does not use the film music composed by James Horner , but instead uses music from Plunkett & Macleane (1999) by Craig Armstrong , a music composed for the trailer by an unknown composer, and finally music by Hans Zimmer from Gladiator ( 2000) .

criticism

According to the lexicon of international films , Windtalkers is "a war film by John Woo, which is narrative and stylistically more oriented towards the Western and describes war not as the father of all things, but as a horror without meaning. Both the structure and the dramaturgy are often too simple and full of clichés, so that only the elegance of the images and rare moments of silence are remembered. "

literature

  • Antonia Felix: Windtalkers - a John Woo film; the making of the Film about the Navajo code talkers of World War II. Newmarket Press, New York 2002, ISBN 1-55704-514-3 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Release certificate for Windtalkers . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry, April 2007 (PDF; theatrical version).
  2. ↑ Release certificate for Windtalkers . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry, October 2005 (PDF; Director's Cut).
  3. ↑ Stephen Pincock: Secret Codes: The Most Famous Encryption Techniques and Their History . Bastei Lübbe, 2007, ISBN 3-431-03734-8 ( limited preview in the Google book search).
  4. ↑ filmstarts.de
  5. ↑ history.net (engl.)
  6. ↑ "The Marines deny that was the policy." , "There is no truth to the idea that the bodyguards were ordered to kill code talkers"
  7. ↑ trailer
  8. ↑ Windtalkers. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used