Older Movie Review: Rescue Dawn (2006) by request:

Rescue Dawn is the true story of Vietnam War prisoner Dieter Dengler. It is written and directed by Werner Herzog who also directed the documentary about this same subject, Little Dieter Needs to Fly. This, no doubt, helped give the movie a documentary-like realism. The landscape is authentic and brutally unrelenting. The opening scene is taken from actual footage of incendiary bombs (Napalm) being dropped on Vietnam. It was filmed in the jungles of Thailand and there is never any doubt about where you are. The characters are very real; some of them horrible, some good and some so confused they have forgotten who and where they are. Rescue Dawn is less a war movie and more a survival story. Pumped up about his first mission, German-American fighter pilot, Dengler (Christian Bale – Batman Begins, The Prestige, American Psycho, Public Enemies) doesn't last long before his plane is shot down by enemy fire. He finds himself in the middle of the jungle. While trying to brave the elements, he is captured, tortured and confined in a makeshift Loatian jungle prison run by the Viet Cong. He refuses to sign an anti-American confession because "America gave me wings". He is imprisoned with a group of beaten prisoners of war, two of them Americans, Duane and Gene incredibly portrayed by Steve Zahn (Joy Ride) and Jeremy Davies. Dengler is determined to escape from the moment he arrives. And so it begins; the difficult mission to simply stay alive. Filthy, starving, and continually taunted, Dengler plans his escape. Food is sparse, at times no more than a plateful of worms. Sleeping conditions are appalling. Their hands are cuffed and their bare feet are encased in a stockade-like device. The prison escape is successful but as his prison-mate, Duane explains earlier, “The jungle is the prison”, and their ordeal navigating the terrain makes rescue seem nearly impossible. Rescue Dawn is a gripping account of a horrific story incredibly acted by Christian Bale who gives a believable performance (he did his own stunts and lost a ton of weight) as a man trying to rise above his impossible circumstances. It is not a political movie about whether or not the Vietnam War was right or wrong. It is about the triumph of the human spirit and the incredible will to survive against enormous odds. The music, composed by Klaus Badelt, is haunting and used sparingly. Watching the movie it is not easy but it is worth every gut wrenching moment.