Martin Henderson

Reviewed by Rosie
March 5, 2006

"Windtalkers" was on A&E last night and I taped it to watch it today. This morning I am greeted with the dreaded first screen of "This movie is modified from its original format. It is formatted to fit your screen." I thought to myself this is what you get from watching a movie on TV, a chopped up version. I do not know why they still show these full screen versions, especially with the movies that admiring the scene and the visual effects are part of the movie experience. We are going to be done with them next year, right? Anyhow, back to the movie.

The first scene is a battle scene and of course I am trying to locate MH's character to no avail. Everyone is shouting, bombs are going off everywhere, soldiers are covered in mud and blood and I am developing headache trying to find MH, LOL. Finally after a few more tries I decided that everyone except Nicolas Cage's character are going to get killed and then MH is going to show up in the next platoon with NC's character. So here we go with fast forward. And what do you know, LOL, I was actually right, LOL, yep, FF through NC's character's recovery, his attempts to convince his doctors and his superiors that he is okay to get back to his duty, so finally he is back at camp, they are sitting playing a friendly game of cards and bam, there he is, MH's character, sitting there playing cards.

I had seen images of this scene but of course seeing the movie is something else. MH is so young here. I think this is the earliest movie of him that I have seen so far. He was in his late twenties in this movie but he looks more like being in his early twenties. There is one scene that they are all standing and talking and compared to the other actors MH looks so small, both skinny and short.

Anyhow, moving on. The next scene they are in the briefing getting their orders. Some of the soldiers are shown to be ready and confident to go to battle. MH's character is all worried and unsure sitting there smoking. You know, brain is a funny place. I am watching this scene and suddenly I am remembering a movie that I have seen more or less 20 years ago and of course I have a prediction.

All through Junior High and maybe even the beginning of High school I was an admirer of the works of Mel Gibson. There was no movie of him that I would miss. Every week I would scan the TV schedule to see if they were playing a movie of him that I had not seen before. Actually I remember one night they were showing one of his movies that I had not seen before. So I declared to my parents that I had set my alarm clock and that I would get up at 1 am, LOL, to watch and tape the movie. I must have been 12 or 13. Anyhow, my parents, of course first tried to reason with me, when that did not work, they started to play the parent card that I say so, and when that did not work they started threatening that it is a school night, you have a test tomorrow, if you mess this test up no more TV, movie, visiting friend, they visit you, and on and on and on, for three month. My parents were very big on three, everything to them is three, no one, or two, or thankfully four, but three. Anyhow, like always I won the argument and got up to watched the movie, went back to sleep all happy and excited (yep, exactly, LOL, I was thinking to myself the same thing, that if I could watch the movie tonight why should I wait until tomorrow night, pretty good reasoning, don't you think so?) Anyway, went to school the next day, not very alert I am sure, but enough to do great on my test and make my parents realize to never argue with me regarding watching MG's movies. Anyhow, I am digressing. Oh, one more thing and then I move on, you know, I even had made a scrapbook of MG’s acting career. I had collected all the articles written about him and all the pictures from magazines or newspaper that I could get my hands on and made a real cool scrapbook. And I treasured that book. Now I have no idea were it is, probably in my parents' basement collecting dust, LOL.

Anyhow, moving on, back to "Windtalkers", when I saw MH's character sitting there smoking suddenly I remembered MG in "Gallipoli" (of course I had to consult imdb to remember the name of the movie that I am sure I knew by heart some 20 years ago). That was also another war movie and MG according to imdb was 25 years old when he played in that movie.

Update: June 30, 2006 -- Checked out the "Gallipoli" DVD from my local library and I will let you be the judge of how alike the two sets of images are! LOL.

I think MG's acting career took off right around the time that he played in "Lethal Weapon" movies and he was in his early thirties. Somehow I see lots of resemblance between MG and MH's career. You know, I remember around mid to late 80's when critics were praising MG's work they always trashed his earlier work. Of course I have not seen anyone put down MH's works as much as they did MG's, but I have read a few articles that the reviewer has not been too kind to MH's performance. Anyhow, I really think MH's career like MG is going to take off from here on. Yep, this is my epiphany for today, LOL.

Okay, one more time back to the "Windtalkers", and of course, another battle scene. I know I have to appreciate all these special effects that they used to make the battlefield very real and the hard work and great job that every has done so that I can appreciate this movie. But I guess these kinds of movies do not interest me anymore. There were times that I could watch war movies, think about that generation that made so much scarifies and bravery. Admire them and count my blessing that my generation is living at peacetime and we do not have to go through things like that. But I cannot do that anymore. Every few days, there is another causalities of war in either Iraq or Afghanistan, and another young person has made the ultimate scarifies for me to sit here and watch TV. Nop, I cannot do that. So right at that point I turned off the TV, thinking MH or no MH I cannot stomach watching anymore of the "Windtalkers".

You know, I avoided seeing this movie when it first came out because one reviewer in particular said that the movie did not do justice representing the Navajo tribe. And since I respect the Navajo nation a lot and trust the view of that reviewer, I decided to boycott the movie, LOL. But now I wanted to watch it to see MH's performance, LOL. But you know, I think I should have stick to my first decision, LOL, I should have reminded myself to follow my high school teachers' advice, LOL, they always warned us when taking a multiple-choice-question tests, trust your first instinct, and select the one choice that first seems to you that is the correct answer, and do not change it, LOL, so what do you know, in this case, they were absolutely right, I should have trusted my first instinct and continued to avoid seeing this movie, LOL.

Anyhow, I turned off the TV and went for my long run. And what a great day it was for a run today. Sunny, in the 30s, no wind to speak of, clean paths, just prefect. This winter has been amazing. I think I had to run on ice maybe a handful of times, compared to last year, around this time, that I was so annoyed with nature and its snow and cold air that I could not wait for the spring. But this morning life is good and I thought what else could I ask for. Of course, you do not have to tell me, I know, another great and preferably loooooooong movie with MH playing the main character, LOL. Yep, I did ask for that and now I am sitting here waiting for it to come to theaters near us, LOL.