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  • 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]
    • Later reportedly titled Men of Destiny and Land of Destiny, Nicolas Cage was rumoured to be attached to the project[16][17][18]

Plot

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Cast

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Production

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Conception

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Writing and development

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  • Phil Strub, the Department of Defense's film and television liaison office head, received the original script on January 28, 2000[7]

Casting

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Objections by the Navajo

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  • 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

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  • 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

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Design

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Release

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Context

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Box office

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Reception

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Critical response

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Accolades

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Post-release

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Home media

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Other media

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Thematic analysis

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Legacy

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Cultural influence

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Critical reassessment

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Sequels and spin-offs

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Notes

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References

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  1. ^ Higgins, Bill; Petrikin, Chris (1998-11-22). "Woo at helm of UA's war story". Variety. Retrieved 2024-05-04.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference ChicagoTribune_Elder2002 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Felix 2002, pp. 24–26, "A Story that Needs to be Told".
  4. ^ Bonin, Liane (2002-06-14). "Why John Woo made the anti-war Windtalkers". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2023-12-04.
  5. ^ a b "Windtalkers: Production Notes". www.cinema.com. Retrieved 2023-12-05.
  6. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference TheNewYorker_Abrams2023 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ a b Robb, David (2002-06-14). "To the Shores of Hollywood". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2024-03-13.
  8. ^ Reifsteck, Greg (2001-03-07). "Native Americans Woo'd for MGM's 'Windtalkers'". Variety. Retrieved 2023-12-04.
  9. ^ Arnold, William (2002-06-11). "Famed action director brings a fresh WWII story to the big screen". Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Retrieved 2023-12-05.
  10. ^ "Windtalkers (2002) - Financial Information". The Numbers. Nash Information Services, LLC. Retrieved 2023-12-04.
  11. ^ Bradshaw, Peter (2002-08-30). "Windtalkers". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2023-12-04.
  12. ^ Koehler, Robert (2002-06-04). "Windtalkers". Variety. Retrieved 2023-12-04.
  13. ^ Edelstein, David (2002-06-07). "Cowboys and Indians". Slate. ISSN 1091-2339. Retrieved 2023-12-04.
  14. ^ Rosenbaum, Jonathan (2002-06-20). "Windtalkers". Chicago Reader. Retrieved 2024-06-15.
  15. ^ "John Woo and Chow Yun-Fat: Together Again?". IGN. 2001-07-06. Retrieved 2024-03-15.
  16. ^ "Who Are the Men of Destiny?". IGN. 2002-03-25. Retrieved 2024-03-15.
  17. ^ Fleming, Michael (2002-03-31). "Woo's man of 'Destiny'". Variety. Retrieved 2023-03-15.
  18. ^ "Woo lassoos Cage for new Western". The Guardian. 2002-06-26. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2024-03-15.
  19. ^ Reed, Christopher (1999-10-24). "Navajo heroes fix Hollywood star in their sights". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2024-09-07.
  20. ^ "World War II Had an Unbroken Code of the West". Chicago Tribune. 1999-11-05. Retrieved 2024-09-07.
  21. ^ Applebaum, Stephen. "John Woo: Windtalkers". BBC. Retrieved 2024-09-06.

Cited literature

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Further reading

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