Hey folks, Harry here... I've had this in my aintitcoolmail account for a couple of weeks now, but what with SXSW and busy life things, I overlooked posting it... But here's a finer look at the footage that was shown at ShoWest of John Woo's WWII film, WINDTALKERS... enjoy...
Harry,
I heard you loud and clear, bro. Here's what I can give you in the way of a shot-by-shot of the Windtalkers footage.
For those that haven't heard about Windtalkers, it is directed by John Woo and stars Nicholas Cage as an Army officer who is assigned to protect a member of the Huron tribe in the Pacific theatre in WWII. The armed forces used the Huron language as a code during the war because it was never a written language, only spoken, and was only known by a few people. Cage is assigned to protect him at all costs, and to kill him if he falls into enemy hands.
The footage shown at the Technicolor demo was, to my knowledge, the only shown at ShoWest besides the trailer during the MGM demo reel. It featured a land battle between what appeared to be Japanese and American forces on an island in the south pacific. There could have been other allied forces, but as I said, there was absolutely no dialogue so I can't say for sure.
The footage spanned about five to eight minutes and involved a battle taking place in a field on this island. Most of the shots were long shots of soldiers running or marching while large mortar shells explode around them.
Several close battle shots were inter-cut throughout the footage. One involved a group of three American soldiers climbing over a barbed wire fence while retreating from gunfire. One of the soldiers gets caught in the fence. While the other soldiers try to free the first one, they are all hit by a mass of machine gun fire. Much of this close-up footage is in slow motion, which isn't surprising from John Woo.
Another close up shot of interest was originally a long shot of explosions and soldiers. A lone soldier comes into frame and gets shot, falling down into a foxhole which is revealed as he falls. In the foxhole, there are medics tending to the wounded, as well as machine guns blazing from several positions.
Other close up shots involved short looks at mortar cannons (?) being loaded, fired, and reloaded; machine gun placements blazing; and several troop carriers running over mines and taking gun and mortar fire.
In all, the footage was pretty good, but obviously it is a work in progress. The slow-motion stuff was all really well done, as usual, and the whole clip had a sort of light golden look to it, which helped to place the film, but also gave it a kind of visual signature. I was waiting to see white doves flying across the battle field, but no dice.
If you want a comparison to Saving Private Ryan, there is none. But, in Woo's defense, this wasn't a "battle scene" as much as it was "various battle footage" cut together as a short demo. I'm anxious to see the full film, as I'm sure it will be another signature John Woo piece.
Well Harry, there you are. Sorry I didn't give more detail the first time around.
Jason Vorhees
