Rescue Dawn (2007)

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

an ambitious but ultimately ineffective debut endeavor.

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Cried so much on this one :( Cried so much on this one :( Cried so much on this one :( Cried so much on this one :( Cried so much on this one :( Cried so much on this one :(Cried so much on this one :( Cried so much on this one :( Cried so much on this one :(Cried so much on this one :( Cried so much on this one :( Cried so much on this one :(

German director Werner Herzog is well known for his jungle-set pictures as well as his documentaries, and the look of this film is heavily inspired by both. It has a gritty, realistic edge to it that ties in with the fact that it's based on a true story, and Herzog's a guy striving for realism throughout. At the end of the day, RESCUE DAWN is simply another Vietnam P.O.W. flick, but that's fine as Hollywood hasn't made one in a while. This film has a taut and compelling narrative and benefits hugely from some excellent performances, especially from the central duo of Christian Bale and Steve Zahn. Bale, who loses weight again for the role after his turn in THE MACHINIST, is typically excellent, but it's Zahn who comes as the biggest surprise. This is a guy typically typecast in comedies but he gives a great dramatic turn here.The story is pretty predictable and infused with a level of grittiness that incorporates torture, hardships, deprivation, and killing. It comes as no surprise that the second half is an escape picture, with our heroes tackling everything the jungle throws at them in their bid for survival. Not since Ruggero Deodato's gruelling cannibal epics circa 1980 has a film made us feel the sweaty confines of the jungle so much. A truly heartwarming ending lifts our spirits a little, but in the end this is a roller-coaster ride of emotion and another example of the triumph of the human spirit. Great stuff.

What a perplexingly weird movie. What makes it even weirder is, it's based on a real person and event. Typically if a movie is based around a real event, the movie goes for more of a realism type approach, but I'm not sure what the the movie was trying to achieve? Did they not want to depress the audience, so they decided to cover this story in a way that the audience wouldn't have to be emotionally impacted by it? Where to begin? When Dieter (Christian Bale) gets captured and brought to the leader (not sure the leaders title). His demeanor was that of a US teenager in Europe for spring break or at least the way movies like to portray American teens over seas. Cocky, like the world owes them something and just immature, whereas I can't imagine anyone in a situation where they were captured acting like that. It gets weirder as it goes into the various torture thing they do to Dieter... it's done in more of a comedic way, rather than upsetting. The fact that it's based on a real person makes me think that no, and someone completely dropped the ball and if I had to guess that someone was Christian Bale. As if he was incapable of playing this role and it came out in more of a dark comedic style. And they went a little over board with the insanity part of it. Then when is friend gets his head hacked off, it's not a sad moment and it isn't sad for Dieter either. Anyways, I give up trying to figure this movie out. It felt as though the movie was on anti depressants.... no emotion whatsoever in reference to things that should have been really upsetting.

Part war movie, part prison film, and part jungle-survival tale, Rescue Dawn tells the true story of US Navy pilot Dieter Dengler (played here by Christian Bale), who after being shot down and captured during a mission over Laos, escaped from a Vietcong prison camp and trekked hundreds of miles through the jungle before being rescued by American Helicopters.The story proceeds very quickly at first. After some mission briefings and a visit to the quartermaster's office, Dieter flies his bombing run and is promptly shot down. His efforts to evade capture succeed only briefly, and soon he is an unwilling companion to a Vietcong patrol which delivers him to a remote prison camp. Here he meets his fellow prisoners; Gene, Duane, and three South Vietnamese, all of whom were pilots for Transamerica Airlines.These men have been here for over a year- two and a half in Gene's case- and the strain of their confinement clearly shows. Gene in particular has started to come unhinged. His ramblings and delusions provide a degree of comic relieve and generate sympathy, but at the same time his fractured mental state poses a threat to Dieter's plans of escape. In his mind, the fighting will end and they'll be released any day now, as long as they behave themselves and don't try anything stupid. The contest of wills provides one of the main conflicts in the middle section of the film. But it's in the movie's second half, beginning with the escape, that things really pick up. From here on out the good guys are alone and on the run deep in enemy territory. To be caught is almost certainly to be killed.The truly inspiring thing about this movie is how Dieter never allows himself to be broken, no matter what he goes through. Given the chance to receive better treatment by signing an anti-American proclamation, he refuses. Shackled to the floor of his hut by night and given insufficient food by jailers, he encourages the others, while holding on to his determination to escape. And no matter how tired he gets, or how many setbacks he suffers on his jungle trek, he finds a way to keep pressing on.Hertzog has done a good job with the casting. Bales' intensity and his willingness to take on physically and mentally challenging roles make him an excellent choice play the lead in this film. It's not every actor who will agree claw his way through dense jungle underbrush, float through rapids, or be covered in leeches. This being a Herzog film, there are no back lot sets or computer effects when actual locations and old fashioned stunt work will do. And as always, the director captures the beauty of his jungle surroundings, even when emphasizing their inhospitableness. When you think about it, Rescue Dawn has a much in common with a survival program on the Discovery Channel as with the average 'Nam movie.Hertzog is also wise to avoid going into the larger issues surrounding the Vietnam War, neither taking a stance for, or against American policy and actions in the conflict. Such questions are beyond the scope of this story, and would only strike a moralizing tone. Although far from his best work, Rescue Dawn is a highly engaging and inspiring story of one man's unbeatable will.