Box Office Bombs In Cinema History: Windtalkers ( 2002 )

It is not easy knowing what the audience wants to see on the big screen. Obviously there are certain movie franchises that will get an audience such as Avatar. But if you look at the majority of cinema releases each year, there is no guarantee certain films will make any profit at all. Even if you have a great cast included and have a great director on board the project, still doesn´t mean the audience will be there. A perfect example of this is the 2001 buddy cop action thriller 15 Minutes, directed by John Herzfeld ( the director of the great 1996 film 2 Days in the Valley ). I saw this film in cinema and actually enjoyed it, i think actors Robert De Niro and Edward Burns had a great chemistry on the big screen, i also enjoyed the performance by Fraser actor Kelsey Grammer. The action scenes were fun and i did like the migrant villains in this film. It didn´t matter if 15 Minutes had several great action scenes and some pretty good acting performances, the audience didn´t seem to be interested. On a budget of 43 million U.S. dollars the film only made around 56 million U.S. dollars worldwide totally. If you think about the budget, this film would have needed at least to cross around 100 million U.S. dollars in ticket sales. The good news though is that the DVD release of 15 Minutes actually helped the film, from what i understand in America alone the DVD rental numbers were pretty good at that time, while in the UK the DVD release didn´t make the same impact. Even though this is a box office bomb from the year of 2001, i still think 15 Minutes is a solid film. Especially if you love Robert De Niro movies in general, you should pick up a DVD copy. Speaking of box office bombs i decided to do a segment review called Box Office Bombs In Cinema History. Since there are a lot of box office bombs to choose between, so i decided to pick the 2002 war movie Windtalkers from legendary Hong Kong director John Woo ( the director of the Hong Kong action cult films The Killer, and Hard Boiled, both films you should see). I have seen the theatrical version of this film plus the director´s cut as well, I actually saw Windtalkers in cinema back in the summer of 2002. I was wondering if i should review the director´s cut but for this review i decided to review the theatrical version, since we are talking about cinema releases. With a quite big celebrity cast included, is this a war movie you should see or are there far more better releases such as Apocalypse Now Redux worth watching instead?

During World War II , U.S Marine corporal Joe Enders ( Nicolas Cage ) returns to active duty after surviving on the Solomon Ilands against the Imperial Japanese Army that killed his entire squad and wounded his left ear. Enders and Sgt Pete "Ox" Hendersson ( Christian Slater ) recieve new assignments to protect Navajo code talkers Pvt. Ben Yahzee ( Adam Beach ) and Pvt. Charlie Whitehorse ( Roger Willie ) in a JASCO. Yahtzee and Whitehorse, childhood friends from the Navao tribe, are trained to send and receive coded messages that direct artillery fire. With their knowledge they might have a chance to strike out their enemy.

I might be completely wrong but i have a theory why Windtalkers flopped at the box office. The film came out in June of 2002 in America ( while the film came out in August here in Sweden that year ), and as we all know it´s usually the box office blockbusters that makes most of the cash during summer. I mean, if you look at the box office summer releases of June, 2002, how was Windtalkers supposed to have a chance against Steven Spielberg´s latest film Minority Report, the live film adaptation of Scooby Doo and of course The Bourne Identity released in the same month? Plus you had Star Wars Episode II - Attack Of The Clones released a month earlier, which did really well at the box office. It doesn´t really matter now i suppose, let´s just talk about Windtalkers in general and let me give you my personal opinion. One of the most interesting details regarding Windtalkers is that the film is inspired by real stories of code talkers from the Navajo nation during World War II. The fact that these people managed to find out secret codes being sent out, who probably never would have been solved without the Navajo soldiers. This is definetely a different story than we usually see from films taking place during World War II, and i like the fact that director John Woo wanted to tell this story and how important it was having Navajo soldiers during the war. Just imagine if they never would have found out the secret codes, could that have affected the war somehow? The acting performances from actors Adam Beach and Roger Willie as Navajo tribe soldiers Private Ben Yahzee, and Private Charlie Whitehouse are solid and they definetely leave an important impact on this film. One of my issues with this film is the character development, for example Christian Slater´s character Seargent Peter feels more like Christian Slater in a soldier´s clothes, but don´t feel like a Seargent character. I like his scenes when he looks more like an ordinary soldier, with some descent dialogue scenes. Nicolas Cage as the character Seargent Joe works better, as if he actually tried to portait his character with some actual acting effort. That doesn´t mean the full performance is great, it´s not. As well all know Nicolas Cage loves to do over the top acting, and he does this as well in Windtalkers. The real strength of this film is the war scenes and the brutality of war. It´s far from some of the best war scenes we have seen on camera, but since director John Woo knows how to make violent films effective, he knows how to capture that feeling even in a war film. The brutality of Worls War II is definetely captured on camera in some of the most brutal scenes. I mentioned earlier that i review the theatrical version of Windtalkers and that is still correct, i should just mention that the director´s cut version show some different details that actually makes that version more interesting. Windtalkers is a war movie that may not be as good as some war movie classics, but if you are a fan of World War II movies then this could be something for you. I still feel that Windtalkers have an interesting story to tell, worth a watch on streaming or on physical media.

Rating: DDD