Rescue Dawn

---

Tools:
Recommend review to a friend »

---

Navy pilot Dieter Dengler just wanted to fly. Plus, he heard that the massage parlors and go-go girls in Saigon were really something. But on his very first mission--a secret one that would have him flying over Laos before the U.S. officially began their involvement in the Vietnam war--his plane was shot up and he was forced to crash land.

Based on a true story, "Rescue Dawn" tells the story of Dengler's capture, torture, bonding with a half-dozen other prisoners, and their eventual escape from Laotian captors and North Vietnamese regulars.

It's a surprisingly lyrical story, with the focus not on eye-bulging screams during torture sequences or intense drama during life-threatening moments. Director Werner Herzog ("Grizzly Man") takes his visual and tonal approach from Dengler's character. The Navy pilot is an even-keeled, optimistic fellow who doesn't get too high when things look promising or too low when the bottom falls out. There's torture, yes, but Herzog shows just enough footage to suggest it. When, for example, Dengler (Christian Bale) is hung upside down with a hornet's nest strapped next to his face and spun from a tree to stir the insects, we know it's torture, we know what's going to happen. A more obvious director would have used CGI hornets to attack the man and puff his face up like a purple-bruised blowfish. When Dengler is crammed, feet first, into a small well that's just wide enough for a human, he's pushed under water several times and then left there under guard. Again, a director inclined to milk such scenes for all they're worth would have gone with a much longer torture scene. But we get the point. We know they didn't just bob his head under water a few times, as if it were a party game. This is Herzog's method, and that, plus a quietly powerful musical score and some neo-romantic cinematography (the film was shot in northern Thailand, and the scenery is gorgeous), make "Rescue Dawn" more lyrical than gritty.

In a way, it's a halfway film--hovering somewhere between "The Bridge on the River Kwai" and "Cast Away." The camera focuses on Dengler throughout much of the film. Even when he's in the small camp with the others, we still feel as if it's Dengler's world. Only when there's opposition to his escape plan by Gene (Jeremy Davies), a skinny long-haired prisoner who's been there for two years, do we get a stronger sense of community and a bump in tension. And when Dengler bonds with a likable but frail prisoner named Duane (Steve Zahn), it almost feels like a love story, Herzog handles their developing friendship with such sensitivity. Even then, the point of view remains consistently Dengler's, so that the things that happen have almost the same quality of a dream or hallucination.

Now, the price one pays for lyricism and staying true to a real-life story? For one thing, there's an awful lot of whispering in this film, so if you've gone to a bunch of rock concerts in your lifetime you probably are going to have to strain to hear. Also, there isn't the same kind of strong narrative arc that we get in typical war, rescue, or POW films. And while the cameras invite us to soak up the scenery and the situation with lingering shots and quiet sequences, the downside is that "Rescue Dawn" can feel slow-moving, especially in the early-to-middle stages of Dengler's internment. But what gets us through it is the sense of reality that Herzog imparts, and amazing performances by Bale and Zahn.

Then too, if you're at all inclined to ponder life's ironies, there are plenty of moments that invite thoughtfulness. When, for example, one of the prisoners overhears a plan the guards have hatched--to take them in the jungle and shoot them for escaping, so they can get back to their homes and help their families overcome a rice shortage--you realize that these Laotians are just regular guys who have the same kinds of priorities as their captives.

---

---