World War II historian John McManus was impressed by the portrayal of one aspect in Nicolas Cage’s book. The Windtalkers. Cage’s character, Sergeant Joe Enders, is responsible for protecting Private Ben Yahzee (Adam Beach), a Navajo code talker in the World War II film. Navajo code talkers were a group of Navajo men who used their native language to send coded messages, which proved to be of great help to the Allies during the war.
In an Inside video, McManus breaks down the historical accuracy of how Navajo code talkers are portrayed The Windtalkers. He explains that in addition to helping the Allies with their military operations in the Pacific, the code talkers relied on sowing confusion among the Japanese, which The Windtalkers he does a good job of illustration. McManus was particularly impressed by how The Windtalkers it reveals the code talkers while acknowledging some of the film’s historical inaccuracies and limitations. Read his comments below:
Adam Beach plays a Navajo code talker. They used some words from their language to represent military concepts or words, and that would be transmitted by radio, as you can see there. They may have called fire that way. That was one of the many, many important features of code talkers. They are presented here as people who are like the main audience in a way. It was not always the role these young men played. Most of the time it was just routine communication, back and forth between headquarters, to confuse the Japanese.
I like that part of the clip where the Japanese experts are really confused about this. At this point in the war, Saipan, 1944, they probably knew, if they had any knowledge, that there were Native Americans in this type of role speaking in their non-English languages. It didn’t mean he understood what they were saying.
And they are designed to kill other ships, other warships, other foreign ships in the enemy navy. That is exactly what they are there to do. But they have the ability to provide us on the ground with great fire support, too. In this case, Nicolas Cage and the other Marines are shown in the lead. It is called danger close, in that place in between. In other words, the closer you are to where the shells are supposed to land, the more likely you are to face friendly fire targets.
I would give it a 7 out of 10. I love that the clip showed the amazing contributions and how much power the coders had for iteration. I think it’s a difficult thing to portray on film, and I think they did a good job with it.
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What This Means for Windtalkers
Historical and Critical Views of the Windtalkers Are Diverse
Although McManus highly recommends it The Windtalkersthe film was not well receivedit receives a critical score of 33% and an audience score of 50% on Rotten Tomatoes. Critics praised the action sequences but were unimpressed with the way the story of the real coders was handled and felt it was a shallow exploration of the subject. According to the clips McManus watched, he had the opposite assessment, insisting that the code talkers and their importance were portrayed very well, while the action sequences involving Cage’s character and other Marines showed unnecessary danger for the sake of drama.
These different perspectives are what make the film unique The Windtalkers it’s worth watching and discussing decades after its release
The intersection between critical and historical perspectives of The Windtalkers it’s an important reminder of how film can be enjoyed and analyzed on so many levels which are not always compatible. A film can talk about the historical significance of something while struggling to make the whole story come together. Action sequences can be well-placed and fun to watch while being far too realistic. These different perspectives are what make the film unique The Windtalkers it’s worth watching and discussing decades after its release.
Our take on Windtalkers
The 2002 Movie Was an Important Step Forward
The Windtalkers it was released before Native American stories were often told in mainstream films. It deserves credit for helping to educate audiences about Navajo code talkers and the important role they played in World War II. If The Windtalkers were made today, the Beach character would be the main character instead of the Cage character to make it more about the Navajo code talkers than the action. Most important, however, is how The Windtalkers made the story of the Navajo code talkers better known and revealed the nature of their valuable contributions.
Source: Inside