User:FrostFairBlade/sandbox/Windtalkers
Appearance
- Windtalkers (2002)
- Woo's next project was Windtalkers (2002)
- First announced in 1998 as a project for United Artists, a sublabel of MGM[1]
- It was the first project under Lion Rock Productions[2]
- Woo accepted the project after he and Chang were pitched the concept by screenwriters John Rice and Joe Batteer, and producers Alison Rosenzweig and Tracie Graham[3]
- Woo wanted to focus on the friendships in the story[4][5]
- Woo recalled that his requests to focus on friendships was met with resistance from the writers, but MGM backed the director[6]
- The script was also subjected to several edits in order to get approval and assistance from the United States Department of Defense and the United States Marine Corps; cuts included a scene where a Marine pulls fillings from a Japanese soldier's corpse, and a scene where a character kills a Japanese soldier trying to surrender[7]
- Woo remembered the film shoot was rough due to the bad weather, which held up production[6]
- In an effort to achieve ethnic accuracy, Native American actors were cast to play the code talkers[8]
- The film suffered from delays, including one meant to distance the film from the September 11 attacks.[9]
- Windtalkers was a box office bomb, earning only $77.6 million worldwide on a production budget of $115 million[10]
- The film was panned by critics; Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian called it "a disappointing feature" that presented a superficial understanding of the relationship between the code talkers and the Marines[11]
- Robert Koehler of Variety lamented that the film was "a powerful premise turned into a stubbornly flat, derivative war movie."[12]
- Slate's David Edelstein found the film cliched and overly sentimental, quipping that "Woo could end up becoming the John Ford of schmaltz."[13]
- In a positive review however, Jonathan Rosenbaum of the Chicago Reader believed its "masterful storytelling" left him "moved and absorbed"[14]
- As early as July 2001, Woo was attached to The Line, a period film starring Chow Yun-fat about a Chinese railroad worker who vows to get revenge on those who sold him into slavery[15]
Plot
[edit]Cast
[edit]Production
[edit]Conception
[edit]Writing and development
[edit]- Phil Strub, the Department of Defense's film and television liaison office head, received the original script on January 28, 2000[7]
Casting
[edit]Objections by the Navajo
[edit]- When the film was announced, the Navajo Code Talkers Association expressed concern about how the code talkers were portrayed[19][20]
- The association, worried that Windtalkers would gloss over the story of the Navajo, objected to the protagonist being a white Marine
Filming and post-production
[edit]- Principal photography began on August 28, 2000[5]
- Woo wanted to use the film to partially pay tribute to director Samuel Fuller, whom he was a fan of[21]
Music
[edit]Design
[edit]Release
[edit]Context
[edit]Box office
[edit]Reception
[edit]Critical response
[edit]Accolades
[edit]Post-release
[edit]Home media
[edit]Other media
[edit]Thematic analysis
[edit]Legacy
[edit]Cultural influence
[edit]Critical reassessment
[edit]Sequels and spin-offs
[edit]Notes
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ Higgins, Bill; Petrikin, Chris (1998-11-22). "Woo at helm of UA's war story". Variety. Retrieved 2024-05-04.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
ChicagoTribune_Elder2002
was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Felix 2002, pp. 24–26, "A Story that Needs to be Told".
- ^ Bonin, Liane (2002-06-14). "Why John Woo made the anti-war Windtalkers". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2023-12-04.
- ^ a b "Windtalkers: Production Notes". www.cinema.com. Retrieved 2023-12-05.
- ^ a b Cite error: The named reference
TheNewYorker_Abrams2023
was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ a b Robb, David (2002-06-14). "To the Shores of Hollywood". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2024-03-13.
- ^ Reifsteck, Greg (2001-03-07). "Native Americans Woo'd for MGM's 'Windtalkers'". Variety. Retrieved 2023-12-04.
- ^ Arnold, William (2002-06-11). "Famed action director brings a fresh WWII story to the big screen". Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Retrieved 2023-12-05.
- ^ "Windtalkers (2002) - Financial Information". The Numbers. Nash Information Services, LLC. Retrieved 2023-12-04.
- ^ Bradshaw, Peter (2002-08-30). "Windtalkers". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2023-12-04.
- ^ Koehler, Robert (2002-06-04). "Windtalkers". Variety. Retrieved 2023-12-04.
- ^ Edelstein, David (2002-06-07). "Cowboys and Indians". Slate. ISSN 1091-2339. Retrieved 2023-12-04.
- ^ Rosenbaum, Jonathan (2002-06-20). "Windtalkers". Chicago Reader. Retrieved 2024-06-15.
- ^ "John Woo and Chow Yun-Fat: Together Again?". IGN. 2001-07-06. Retrieved 2024-03-15.
- ^ "Who Are the Men of Destiny?". IGN. 2002-03-25. Retrieved 2024-03-15.
- ^ Fleming, Michael (2002-03-31). "Woo's man of 'Destiny'". Variety. Retrieved 2023-03-15.
- ^ "Woo lassoos Cage for new Western". The Guardian. 2002-06-26. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2024-03-15.
- ^ Reed, Christopher (1999-10-24). "Navajo heroes fix Hollywood star in their sights". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2024-09-07.
- ^ "World War II Had an Unbroken Code of the West". Chicago Tribune. 1999-11-05. Retrieved 2024-09-07.
- ^ Applebaum, Stephen. "John Woo: Windtalkers". BBC. Retrieved 2024-09-06.
Cited literature
[edit]- Elder, Robert K., ed. (2005). John Woo: Interviews. Conversations with Filmmakers Series. University Press of Mississippi. ISBN 978-1-57806-776-3. Retrieved 2023-11-29.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link) - Felix, Antonia, ed. (2002). Windtalkers: The Making of the John Woo Film About the Navajo Code Talkers of World War II. Newmarket Pictorial Moviebook. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-1-55704-515-7. Retrieved 2023-12-05.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link) - Heard, Christopher (2000). Ten Thousand Bullets: The Cinematic Journey of John Woo. Lone Eagle Publishing. ISBN 978-1-58065-021-2. Retrieved 2023-12-05.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link) - Stokes, Lisa Odham; Hoover, Michael (1999). City on Fire: Hong Kong Cinema. Verso. ISBN 978-1-85984-716-9. Retrieved 2024-04-12.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
Further reading
[edit]External links
[edit]- Hard Boiled at IMDb
- Hard Boiled at the Hong Kong Movie DataBase
- Hard Boiled at AllMovie
- Hard Boiled at Letterboxd
- Hard Boiled at the TCM Movie Database