Navajo follow code of war
by Nick Nance, reporter

    The empire of Japan attacked the United States by bombing Pearl Harbor Dec. 7, 1941.

   Stationed at Pearl Harbor was a vast majority of the Pacific Fleet of the military arsenal.

   On Dec. 8, the United States declared war on Japan. In the years following, U.S. forces were engaged in a fierce battle with Japanese forces in the Pacific.

   The strategy followed by the United States was to take over one island at a time in a methodical manner advancing toward mainland Japan.

   Throughout this campaign, the Japanese had few problems breaking coded U.S. military messages. This slowed the progression of U.S. forces almost to a standstill.

   In 1942 a group of several hundred Navajo Americans were recruited by the Marines and trained to use their language as code.

   Based on the story of these men, the new movie Windtalkers tells of their involvement and their impact.

   Right at the beginning of the film, we begin to follow Joe Enders (Nicolas Cage) as he obeys orders and holds his ground in a battle during which all of his soldiers lose their lives and he is seriously injured.

   This situation creates a war-hardened killer focused on doing the most he can to win the war at any cost.

   After recovering from his injuries, Enders is given a new assignment.

   He must protect Ben Yahzee (Adam Beach), a Navajo code talker.

   Yahzee is going to be used on the main line of resistance to help mark enemy lines for cover fire from bombers and ships at sea.

   Enders’ orders are to protect the code talker. However, if the code talker falls into enemy hands, Enders is ordered to protect the code at all costs.

   Taking part in the battle of Saipan, where capture is almost eminent, Enders must follow these orders or kill another Marine.

   His decision may surprise the audience.

   Cage gives his typical performance.

   We see pretty much the same expressions as we’ve seen in every other movie he’s done.

   This time, however, these expressions fit perfectly.

   Beach gives a great performance as the Navajo code talker.

   His performance is indicative of an actor with a great future.

   The group of code talkers he depicts spoke the only code never broken by the Japanese.

   That code is also considered to have been a key in winning the war, making Windtalkers definitely worth watching.