Rescue Dawn

"Rescue Dawn" (2007)

Directed by Werner Herzog

"Rescue Dawn" is a raw portrayal of prisoners-of-war trying to survive in North Vietnam. The film follows the true story of the Navy pilot, Dieter (Christian Bale), whose plane is shot down while he is in the middle of a bombing mission. Herzog takes a different approach from a more "cinematic" Vietnam film like "The Deer Hunter," shooting the events in a documentary-like manner in order to convey the feeling that we are right there with Dieter.

After managing to evade capture for a couple of days, Dieter is finally caught by the Vietcong, tortured in a village with fascinated - and visibly angry - onlookers, and then led to a prisoner-of-war camp, where he meets fellow prisoners Duane (a captivating Steve Zahn) and the frenetic, on-the-verge-of-madness Gene (Jeremy Davies). Dieter provides a wave of innovation for the group of prisoners, many of whom have been in captivity for over two years. He manipulates a stolen nail so that the prisoners can be unshackled at night and comes up with an escape plan, much to the chagrin of Gene, who seems to have accepted his fate as a perpetual prisoner.

We find out that the guards themselves are imprisoned - bombings have ruined the area's food supply, starving the entire population, and making the guards act more cruelly towards the prisoners. At one point, Duane tells Dieter, "Don't you realize? The Jungle is the prison." Dieter realizes this only after he escapes with Duane, having to deal with leeches, starvation, floods, and angry villagers. Bale gives an outstanding performance as the cocky, affable pilot who is also a natural leader. Thanks to the actor, every tiny victory and every disappointment rings all the more resonant, especially in a sequence where Dieter, after setting part of an empty village on fire in order to signal to helicopters, is fired on by his own men.

It is unfortunate that the film ends with an annoyingly saccharine sequence, in which Dieter is welcomed by the entire crew of an aircraft carrier, complete with intrusive, swelling music. After all of the ordeals that Dieter has to endure, it is strange that Herzog ends the film on such a paltry, sentimental note - it is all happiness, when the war, and the rest of Dieter's experience, was anything but.

Rating: 7.5

First Viewed: 6/16/08
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