Theatrical Review of Rescue Dawn

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There is a strange and powerful moment in "Little Dieter Needs to Fly" (1997) when Dieter Dengler pulls into his driveway. He slams the car door shut behind him twice, and then walks to his front door, opening and closing it twice before he enters his home. Dieter explains that the simple act of opening a door reminds him of the freedom he thought he had lost forever when he was held as a prisoner of war in Laos. It´s actually a total fabrication by director Werner Herzog, one of the moments of "ecstatic truth" he likes to insert into his documentaries, that "mysterious and elusive" level of truth he claims can only be reached through invention and stylization.

Made-up as it might be, it´s a potent way of expressing the lingering trauma suffered by Dengler, an American pilot of German extraction who was shot down over the jungles of Laos on his first flight. His grueling ordeal and harrowing escape makes "Little Dieter Needs to Fly" one of the most gripping adventure stories told in modern cinema, either documentary or fiction. In "Rescue Dawn," Herzog revisits the remarkable story of Dieter Dengler, this time as a Hollywood-style feature film complete with big budget and headline cast.

Christian Bale plays Dengler, though it would be hard for fans of the original documentary to recognize him. Not even a wisp of the real Dengler´s German accent can be heard; Bale´s hero sounds like a mid-West corn-fed all-American farm boy. He also doesn´t seem like the kind of guy who would wind up doing sissy things like repeatedly shutting doors behind him just because of some silly old prison camp. The new Dieter Dengler draws his inspiration more from John Wayne than from his real-life counterpart. He´s a cocky pilot, and a tough-talking soldier who ain´t afraid to die and knows how to talk trash to his well-armed captors.

The transformation of Dengler from vulnerable flesh-and-blood survivor to Tinseltown super-hero wouldn´t be so startling if the film had been adapted by somebody else, but with Herzog´s obvious fondness for his original subject, it arrives as quite a shock. Dengler´s story is as amazing as ever, and the lean screenplay wastes little time getting to the good stuff. Dieter is shot down, makes a valiant effort to escape, is taken prisoner and then almost tortured to death before rallying his previously tamed cell mates (idiosyncratically portrayed by Jeremy Davies and Steve Zahn) to launch a bold escape from their Laotian hellhole. The escape from the prison camp is only the first step in the process; as in many of Herzog´s best films, the vast, uncaring jungle serves as the most daunting obstacle of all. Few directors are better able to capture the dual aspects of nature, both beautiful and ferocious, as Herzog, and the best sequences in "Rescue Dawn" take place as Dengler attempts to guide a wounded comrade out of the jungle alive.

It´s a cracking good adventure, but it´s difficult to feel as much empathy for super-Dieter as I felt for the real Dieter, a gentle and contemplative soul who I have thought about often since I watched (and have subsequently re-watched many times) "Little Dieter Needs to Fly." Bale plays the action hero quite convincingly, but he´s so gung-ho every second he´s on screen (which is virtually every scene) that his ultimate success is never in doubt, and not just because he´s in a Hollywood remake. Super-Dieter knows exactly what he´s got to do, he knows how to do it, and nothing is going to stop him. He tramples each obstacle in his path as if he was ticking off items on his grocery shopping list.

As a long time fan and student of Herzog´s films, I find it difficult to evaluate "Rescue Dawn." Is it a better-than-average Hollywood adventure film, or is it a disappointingly tepid Werner Herzog film? I guess it´s both, which means it will likely be Herzog´s most successful commercial venture since the percentage of potential audience members who might compare it unfavorably to the documentary is miniscule at best.

Herzog has made a strong play for mainstream attention lately. "Grizzly Man" was a splendid film, but it was also Herzog´s least stylized documentary, perhaps a concession to the funding he received from the Discovery Channel. "Rescue Dawn" is an even more conventional outing. There is virtually no sign of Herzog´s trademarked long, lingering shots that border on the sublime, and the prosaic script laced with smart-alecky one-liners doesn´t sound like anything else he has written.

Dieter Dengler´s story is so moving that even a surprisingly vanilla Hollywood treatment can´t spoil it. I would say it´s ironic that "Rescue Dawn," Herzog´s least "Herzogian" film, will also become his most widely seen, but then again R. Crumb´s biggest cash cow is his "Keep On Truckin´" bumper stickers, so I suppose there´s nothing unusual about it. What is more properly ironic is that non-Herzog fans are likely to enjoy the film far more than his long-time devotees. Compared to the dreck that passes for an "action flick" nowadays, "Rescue Dawn" will even seem like a rare treat: an old-fashioned adventure film without any flashy CGI effects and one jammin´ good story.

I rate it a 6 out of 10, with a strong recommendation that you watch the vastly superior "Little Dieter Needs to Fly" after you see "Rescue Dawn." However, I suspect the majority of viewers are going to rate it much higher, and I can understand why. If I wasn´t so enamored of the original Dieter, I´d probably feel the same way.

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