The only secret code never broken in World War II was in fact little more than the Native American Navajo language. Navajo men sent to war were used as radio communicators on the battlefield. These men were known as windtalkers. Bodyguards were assigned to these windtalkers to prevent their falling into enemy hands, whatever the cost. Decorated marine Joe Enders (Cage) and relative newcomer Pete 'Ox' Anderson (Slater) are assigned to 'protect' Privates Ben Yahzee and Charlie Whitehorse, two Navajo Code-talkers. More accurately, they are assigned to protect the code spoken by Yahzee and Whitehorse. We follow our protagonists through basic training through to the assault to take Saipan.

Windtalkers is a John Woo WWII epic that lives up to all expectations of both the genre and the great action director. It is well-paced and action-packed, but at the same time manages not to glorify war. Like many of Woo's other films, Windtalkers builds solid characters and pulls no punches when it gets into action mode.

Windtalkers was initially scheduled for international release in late September 2001, but put on ice (along with all related promotion) after an incident I'm sure we all remember. Months later, when MGM felt comfortable enough to release a war epic but alas not comfortable enough to promote it, Windtalkers was quietly released and consequently did not find the audience it deserved. This was a crying shame for such a good film. Do yourself a favour and don't miss it the second time around!