Focusing on the role of Navajo Native Americans during WW2, and in particular on the bloody Battle of Saipan, Windtalkers is unflinching in its potrayal of the horrors of war.

Nicolas Cage is entrusted with the responsibility of ‘minding’ one of the code-talking ‘Injuns’ Ben Yahzee (a warm performance from new-comer Adam Beach). Though the psychotic Cage eventually gets around to some military male bonding with his charge, it becomes clear early on that his orders to ‘protect the code’ involve shooting his new mate if there is any danger of capture by Japanese troops.

John Woo’s Hollywood output (Hard Target, Broken Arrow, Face/Off) hasn’t quite matched up to the movies he made in his native Hong Kong, but Windtalkers confirms that as a visual stylist and action director, he leaves the much-lauded likes of David Fincher or The Wachowskis in the shade.

The film’s focus on those who are of America but who are alienated within American institutions due to their race, coupled with its departure from the flag-waving antics of such recent muck as the risible We Were Soldiers, make it infinitely more palatable fare.

Bloody battle sequences may not be an appealing prospect in themselves, but Windtalkers has a rare humanity, which is surely to be welcomed in a war flick.