Grade: B+

Verdict: John Woo and World War II are an explosive combination.

Details: Starring Nicolas Cage and Adam Beach. Directed by John Woo. Rated R for violence and language. Two hours, 14 minutes.

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Review: John Woo goes to war in “Windtalkers,” a movie based on a fascinating footnote to World War II. During the combat in the Pacific, the Marines used Navaho "code talkers," who confounded the Japanese by relaying information in their native language, a complex spoken tongue with which few outsiders were familiar. The device proved so successful that the military kept it a secret until the late 1960s, in case they ever needed to use it again.

In the movie, Nicolas Cage plays Joe Enders, a Marine sergeant shattered by the loss of his entire squad in combat. Assigned to “baby-sit” (his words) Ben Yahzee (Adam Beach), a newly recruited Navaho code talker, he's told to protect the code at any cost. Translation: Should Ben fall into enemy hands, Joe is to kill him.

Unlike another Marine bodyguard, played by Christian Slater, who befriends his charge (Roger Willie), Joe chooses to distance himself from Ben. That way it will be easier to follow orders. Yet it was following orders that caused the massacre of his men. Showing his medal to Ben, Joe says ruefully, "I got this for not dying. The 15 men with me got it for dying.”

Woo is clearly interested in this story. Joe's inner conflicts are compelling; so is the changeable nature of his relationship with Ben. One minute, he's trying to avoid sitting with him during a lunch break; the next, he's pulling Ben out of enemy fire.

Yet Woo, a legendary director of hyperbolic action films (more than a dozen in Hong Kong; "Face/Off” and “Mission: Impossible 2” in the United States), brings his unique wizardry to the war scenes.

“Windtalkers” may be wrapped around the code talker phenomenon, but at heart it's every bit as much of a World War II flick as “Saving Private Ryan” or “The Sands of Iwo Jima.” Woo's method of capturing the mayhem and chaos of combat is different from Steven Spielberg's, yet both are masters of kinetic filmmaking. It's as if they were born with an extra visual/editing gene.

In showing us the battle of Saipan, Woo uses everything from sweeping panoramas to vertiginous crane shots to blood 'n' guts close-ups (including a startlingly original point-of-view shot).

These jacked-up battle scenes have an interesting side effect: They help us through the non-action scenes. Much of "Windtalkers" is like a '50s war picture, a reflection of Woo's admitted infatuation with the Hollywood movies of his youth. His characters are out of Pauline Kael's so-called bomber-crew cast list: the city guy, the country guy, the starry-eyed rookie, the cynical veteran, etc. What Woo does so magnificently is to wed the brusquely brilliant B-movie clichés of a Sam Fuller flick with the pyrotechnic expertise of Hollywood, circa 2002.

“Windtalkers” will rightly bring attention to Beach and Willie; both have a distinct, camera-friendly appeal. But the movie's real beneficiary is Cage, who's found a way to bring parts of his Oscar-winning "Leaving Las Vegas" persona to a completely different kind of role. He's the alienated cynic who's also very good at what soldiers are supposed to be good at: killing people.

Joe doesn't believe in anything anymore, yet he aches to believe in something — the idea of dying with honor, perhaps, or finding a role that rings true within the concept of wartime heroism. At times, Cage has the clear-eyed, ironic battle fatigue of William Holden, another actor often cast in roles that revealed the disappointed idealist behind the world-weary cynic.

“Windtalkers” will probably disappoint anyone looking for an in-depth look at the code talkers; and it could turn off those unwilling to work with its retro dialogue and characters. Still, it's difficult to resist Woo's explosive artistry and Cage's reluctant hero. For anyone in the mood for an unusual kind of war movie, “Windtalkers” is talking your language.

— Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Cox News Service