John Woo is finally getting a proper home video career retrospective as his influential Hong Kong films are getting released on 4K UHD. People can now clearly see the movies that made him a king of action with A Better Tomorrow, The Killer and Hard Boiled getting bold new transfers. After the British handover of Hong Kong to China, Woo brought his zesty two-gun style to Hollywood. He found stars eager to dance in his ballistic ballets including Jean-Claude Van Damme, John Travolta, Nicolas Cage and Tom Cruise. Hard Target, Broken Arrow, Face/Off and Mission: Impossible 2 became next level productions. In 2002, Woo made a film that was more than escapist entertainment with fire power. Windtalkers brought one of the great secrets of World War II to the big screen. The film dealt with how the military was able to come up with an unbreakable code that helped secure missions in the Pacific theater by going into the past.
US Marine corporal Joe Enders (Face/Off‘s Nicholas Cage) barely survives the battle in the Solomon Islands that claims the rest of his unit. He returns to Hawaii to rehab. When he recovers, he gets a vital assignment along with Sgt. Pete “Ox” Henderson (Heathers‘ Christian Slater). The marines believe that they have found a code that the Japanese can’t crack: the Navajo language. They have been training tribal members to work the radios. This includes Pvt. Ben Yahzee (Smoke Signals‘ Adam Beach) and Pvt. Charlie Whitehorse (Roger Willie). Joe and Ox are given the assignment to keep their Navajo speaker protected while in the combat. This includes the crucial message that neither code talker is allowed to fall into the hands of the Japanese. If either gets grabbed, they are to be eliminated. The code must be protected at all costs. Joe agrees to this order before he gets to know Ben. Once he sees that Ben is fearless in combat, he doubts he can go through with his fatal command if something goes bad.
Windtalkers shines a light on the Navajo language being used during World War II. This was one of those military secrets that wasn’t exposed until a long time after the Japanese surrender. We learn how important they were so that it sadly makes sense that they couldn’t be taken captive by the Japanese. But you don’t want to be cold blooded about them. Nicolas Cage and Adam Beach create a bond on the screen that you can believe things would develop this way. This is one of my favorite performances from Cage in the 21st Century. Director John Woo brings his eye for action and stunts to the battlefield. He gives us also the compassion between Joe and Ben so this isn’t merely him pulling off camera tricks in firefights. This is why Windtalkers is my favorite of Woo’s American period films.
One of the editors on Windtalkers was Oscar winner Tom Rolf (for The Right Stuff). I once interviewed him about his time working with Elvis Presley on Clambake. Here’s a short documentary I made with Brett Clark about Rolf’s time with the King of Rock n Roll. This was made at the turn of the century, so the transfer is a bit rough.
The Video is 2.35:1 anamorphic. The 1080p transfer brings out the combat action on the screen. The Audio is DTS-HD MA 5.1 & LPCM 2.0 Stereo in English. There’s also a Spanish dub in 5.1 Surround Sound and French dub in 2.0 Stereo Sound. The subtitles are in English, Spanish and French.
The Code Talkers A Secret Code of Honor (23:14) interviews actual soldiers that were part of the Navajo Windtalkers. It gets into how the Japanese were quickly busting codes in the Pacific. Their work was kept classified for decades after World War II. The documentary was made in conjunction with the film.
American Heroes: A Tribute To Navajo Code Talkers (9:01) features photos of members of the Navajo tribe being honored publicly for their contribution in the war. There is a montage of those who served.
The Music of Windtalkers (5:02) takes us into the recording studio with James Horner. He gets into how he works on a film with a director. He points out that he’s the first outsider to see the movie as he composes the themes.
Trailers includes Teaser Trailer (1:25) and Theatrical Trailer (2:19) that has Nicolas Cage being told to protect the code at all cost.
MVD Marquee Collection presents Windtalkers (Theatrical Cut). Directed by John Woo. Screenplay by Joe Batteer & John Rice. Starring Nicolas Cage, Adam Beach, Peter Stormare, Noah Emmerich, Mark Ruffalo, Frances O’Connor & Christian Slater. Running Time: 135 minutes. Rating: Rated R. Release Date: July 14, 2026.
