Windtalkers / Hart’s War / Platoon Tom Berenger 2004 DVD Top-quality

Triple bill of modern war films. Nicolas Cage takes the starring role in ‘Windtalkers’ (2002), a John Woo-directed war film about US soldiers fighting in the Pacific during World War Two. Ben Yahzee (Adam Beach) is a Navajo Indian who signs up for the US marines to work as a radio operator in a new military program which uses the Navajo language as the basis for coded transmissions. Sent into action, Yahzee is given battle-weary sergeant Joe Enders (Cage) as a bodyguard, but remains unaware that Enders has been ordered to kill him should he fall into enemy hands. When the two men find themselves caught up in the intense close-quarters combat of the battle of Saipan, they must struggle not only against the enemy, but also to earn each other’s trust and respect. Bruce Willis stars in ‘Hart’s War’ (2001), a tough Second World War drama set in a prisoner-of-war camp in Belgium, as a US officer determined to protect the details of an escape attempt. When racist prisoner and known traitor Sergeant Bedford (Cole Hauser) turns up murdered, suspicion turns to African-American pilot Lieutenant Scott (Terrence Howard). Colonel McNamara (Willis), the officer in charge of US prisoners, requests that Scott be put on trial and orders Lieutenant Hart (Colin Farrell) to stand as his defence counsel. In his subsequent investigations, Hart gradually uncovers new information about the killing, and begins to question McNamara’s role in the proceedings. Oliver Stone’s award-winning film ‘Platoon’ (1986) tells the story of a young innocent 19-year-old soldier, Chris Taylor (Charlie Sheen), who is thrown headfirst into the bloody Vietnam conflict. He is forced to fight not only the Viet Cong, but also his own fears and intense anger. As a result of not being able to make any progress against the enemy, the soldiers, led by the strict and unsympathetic Sergeant Barnes (Tom Berenger), are forced to turn their anger and guns on each other. Barnes also has a personal battle with fellow officer Sergeant Elias (Willem Dafoe), who is the more understanding and compassionate of the two officers and helps Sheen to cope with his personal problems.