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Rescue
Dawn
(2007)
 
This film, inspired by real-life events, opens in 1965
in the opening stages of the Vietnam war. US fighter
pilot Dieter Dengler (Christian Bale) is participating
in a highly classified bombing raid when his plane
crashes in the middle of the jungle. Shortly
afterwards he is captured by the North Vietnamese Army
and held with five other prisoners in a brutal
prisoner of war camp. As they grow more and more
hungry and their situation looks increasingly
desperate, Dengler comes up with a plan to escape.
Writer and director Werner Herzog had already dealt
with the Dieter Dengler story in his 1997 documentary
film Little Dieter Needs to Fly, which focused mainly
on Dengler's obsession with flight, which was what led
him to join the military in the first place. This element is only
briefly discussed in Rescue Dawn, when Dengler
refuses to sign a paper criticizing the USA which is
handed to him by one of his captors, and explains
"America gave me wings."
Rescue Dawn has been very
heavily criticised in some places for it's historical
inaccuracy, especially in regards to the depiction of
Dengler's fellow prisoners, in particular the family
and friends of Gene DeBruin (played in the film by
Jeremy Davies) who set up a website criticizing the
film. This should come as no surprise to fans of
Herzog, who has readily admitted his disregard for
exact accuracy in favour of some higher truth.
Disregarding the accuracy or otherwise of the film,
this is an impressive piece of work, while still
falling below the standards of Herzog's best work.
The film offers ample examples of Herzog's talent of
filming the jungle, which looks both beautiful and
deadly and captures at times a genuine sense of wonder
(such as a scene wherein a man gazes in amazement at
a plant which closes it's leaves at his touch). Less
of a war film and more of a survival adventure film,
the action sequences are handled well, and the film
manages to conjure up plenty of suspense and
excitement, although the film does suffer from an occasionally dragging pace.
The performances are
uniformly impressive, especially an emaciated
Christian Bale in the lead, and one of the film's
strengths is the sometimes complex relationships
between the prisoners and their captors. Fans of the
often strange rumours that seem to surround Herzog
films may be disappointed that the shoot for Rescue
Dawn was fairly quiet by Herzog standards, although
probably quite chaotic by anyone else's. Relations
between Herzog and the American crew were often
strained, and Herzog ate live maggots, in sympathy
with Bale who had to do the same thing on film.
By
and large, this is a perfectly entertaining and
interesting film. It's very well-made and
well-performed, but it's hard not to be slightly
disappointed; Maybe it's because I, for one, expected
more from a director of Herzog's calibre. However,
even a lesser Herzog work still has enough memorable
and startling moments and themes to be worth seeing.
-Robert
Foster
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All contents ©
2004-2009 Thoughtsonfilm.com |
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Director:
Werner
Herzog
Writer: Werner
Herzog
Starring: Christian
Bale, Steve Zahn, Pat Healy, Jeremy Davies
Distributor: MGM
Runtime: 126
min
Rating: PG-13
Release Date: July
27, 2007
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