War has played a key role in the history of the United States, from the nation's founding

right down to the present. War made the U.S. independent, kept it together, increased its

size, and established it as a global superpower. Understanding America's wars is essential for understanding American history.

Welcome to Key Battles of American History,

a podcast in which we discuss American history through the lens of the most important battles of America's wars.

Here is your host, James Early.

Thank you. your host, James Early. Hello and welcome to another episode of the Pacific War on film.

This is your host, James Early, as always.

And also, as always, I'm accompanied by a good buddy, Sean McIver. Sean, say hi to everybody.

Howdy.

Spoken like a true Texan. Outstanding. Okay, well, let's get right to it. We are going to discuss

an interesting film, very different from the previous ones we've been talking about. And this is

the 2002 film, Win Talkers the previous ones we've been talking about. And this is the

2002 film, Win Talkers, which is on one level about the Battle of Saipan, but on another,

either higher level, it's about the Navajo Code Talkers that were so instrumental to the American

victory in the Pacific Theater. The movie is two hours and 14 minutes long, and the Rotten Tomatoes percentages.

Sean and I were just discussing this before we started recording.

Of all the 17 movies or so, give or take, that we're going to discuss in this series,

this is the lowest rated.

It got 33% positive from the critics and only 50% from the audience.

The IMDB average rating was 6.1. Again, I'm almost positive that is the lowest of all 17.

I didn't have time to, I was going to run through them all real quick before we started,

...