Movie review : Wind talker

The film begins with then corporal Joe Enders (Cage) and a platoon of his fellow Marines fighting Japanese forces on Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands in 1943. The outnumbered Marines are killed one by one, and as Enders mourns over the body of a friend, a grenade explosion knocks Enders unconscious.
Enders is then transported to a field hospital where he is awarded the Purple Heart, before being transported to a military hospital. By mid-1944 Enders has mostly healed from his physical wounds except for troubled hearing in one ear. Considered unfit for duty unless he can pass a hearing test, a sympathetic female pharmacist's mate 2nd class helps Enders cheat to pass. Enders is promoted to sergeant and returns to active duty. Now a grim, taciturn combat veteran who is almost deaf in one ear, Enders receives a top priority assignment protecting Navajo code talker Ben Yahzee (Adam Beach). Less jaded Sergeant Ox Anderson (Christian Slater) receives a parallel assignment protecting Navajo Charlie Whitehorse (Roger Willie). They are told that the code can not fall into enemy hands, which means that if the codetalker is about to be captured they are to kill him to ensure the Japanese can't break the code. Also in their squad are Pvt. Chick, who is equipped with a BAR, the easily-hyperventilating Greek-American Pvt. Pappas, Pvt. Harrigan, who is armed with a flamethrower, and Pvt. Nellie (played respectively by Noah Emmerich, Mark Ruffalo, Brian Van Holt and Martin Henderson).
The Marines land at Saipan under heavy fire from the Japanese forces. Yahzee and Whitehorse receive their first taste of war with Yahzee often wincing and showing signs of disgust at all the death around him. He is also shocked at how Enders mercilessly kills the Japanese troops, who is hearing the dying voices of his fellow troops two years ago in Guadalcanal. In the battle Yahzee never opens fire on the Japanese forces, although he and Whitehorse first apply their code talking to guide battleship bombardment on the Japanese positions.
When the beachhead is secured, the Marines advance further into Saipan. Their convoy comes under artillery fire however and causes them to take cover. The artillery fire is then revealed to be from American guns, which are meant to be targeting Japanese positions just ahead of the road. Yahzee's radio is caught in the bombardment, disabling it, which meant that the group has no way to call off the artillery. The commander then orders them to attack the Japanese positions so as to avoid the American bombardment. In the battle Pvt Nellie is killed by the artillery when he attempts to save a wounded man. A plan is devised which involves Yahzee, disguised as a Japanese soldier, and Enders sneaking behind the Japanese lines to use their radio. The pair manages to reach the radio and Yahzee, after hesitating, kills the radioman before contacting the American artillery. He adjusts their fire so the bombardment will destroy the Japanese position. After the battle, Enders is awarded the Silver Star for saving the lives of his fellow marines. However, he gives the medal to Pvt Pappas to send to Nellie's wife back home.