Revealing mistake: In the scene where the soldiers are in the trench on Saipan's D-Day, a Japanese soldier points a gun at Yahzee's head and Yahzee freezes up. Then Enders comes up and slits the Japanese soldier's throat. If you look closely at the Japanese soldier's throat, you can see that there is no cut in it, just blood. (00:46:55)
Revealing mistake: On the final combat, just after the Japanese uncover their cannons, one of the cannons take a shot but the recoil is a good half second too late.
Revealing mistake: In the scene where they come under fire by their own artillery if you look very closely you can actually see the flash pot used for the first explosion right before it goes off. Its the shot from the driver's side rear of the truck and it occurs right after Enders and Yahzee are talking about Yahzee's son and Enders orders Yahzee not to write letters out.
Revealing mistake: When Christian Slater and Roger Willie play a mournful Indian tune in a recorder/harmonica duet, neither actor knows how to play his instrument, and it shows.
Revealing mistake: In the Saipan village, during the surprise Japanese attack, the Christian Slater character is wrestling on the ground with a Japanese soldier. When another Japanese soldier charges in with his bayonet, Christian Slater turns his wrestling foe up on top of him to take the bayonet. As soon as the bayonet strikes, you can see the bloody special effects 'wound' charge go off in the wrong spot - about 3 inches HIGHER than the bayonet strike. When the shot changes, the SFX mistake wound is no longer there.
Answer: The point of using the Navajo code to call in air strikes was to encrypt what the Marines were requesting without the Japanese being able to decipher what was said. This is critical because during the Battle of Saipan, the Japanese made extensive use of caves and reinforced earthworks to support their artillery positions and machine gun nests. The delay between requesting artillery support and the act of carrying it out allowed the Japanese to withdraw their infantry to relative safety before the fire mission could commence. By using PVT Yahzee and PVT Whitehouse, they were able to circumvent this and request attacks without the Japanese knowing what was coming. The only time Yahzee does not use the code is when he uses the Japanese radio to call off the artillery strikes that were falling short and hitting Marines. This situation required immediate attention and it would not have been appropriate to use the code.
Invader_Gir