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RESCUE DAWN
Written & Directed by: Werner Herzog.
Produced by: Elton Brand, Harry Knapp & Steve Marlton.
Director of Photography Peter Zeitlinger.
Edited by Joe Bini.
Music by Klaus Blaudet.
Released by: MGM.
Country of Origin: USA. 125 min. Rated PG-13.
With: Christian Bale, Steve Zahn & Jeremy Davies.

Werner Herzog has been on a roll lately and has made some of his best work recently in his 40 years as one of the great art-house forces of cinema. Now comes Rescue Dawn, a true marvel of epic storytelling at its most human. Rarely would I go for a “triumph of the human spirit” kind of film, but Herzog passes by all clichés. He told the story of Dieter Dengler before in his 1997 documentary Little Dieter Needs to Fly, where Dengler talked at length about his experiences as a prisoner of war. His story is one of courage and, like most of Herzog’s protagonists, determination, driven to get past the odds no matter what, even when one’s life’s at stake.

German-born Dieter Dengler (Christian Bale), who survived a poverty-stricken childhood and saw his first planes in an Allied attack formation during World War II, only wants/needs to fly. In 1966, after recently becoming an American citizen, he’s a navy pilot chosen for a top-secret bombing run over Laos soon after enlisting. Right on his first flight he gets shot down and captured. His Laotian captors thrust a document condemning American imperialism for him to sign. He refuses.

Soon after a session of tortures, he is put in a small prison camp where he meets, among a few others, an emaciated Dwight (Steve Zahn) and Eugene (Jeremy Davies), who looks like Charles Manson with lots of ideas to escape but no initiative. It’s up to Dengler to get them out of the prison and back to safety – he first fashions a key to get out of the barbaric handcuffs.

Filmed in Thailand, it’s an epic, but not exactly in the mold of Fitzcarraldo or Aguirre: The Wrath of God. Here, it’s all about survival, from not just the prison guards and the camp but the jungle itself, which is, as Dieter observes, another prison. Herzog, I’m sure, would agree up to a point, even as it’s a given that he finds extraordinary images in such a wretchedly beautiful environment – in the immense lot of trees to the river rapids and the dangerous animals within, notably snakes and leeches.

Herzog crafts his film as a supremely human tale, where it’s surprisingly funny and endearing in its male camaraderie, like the type you would often find in old Hollywood films. Towards the beginning, Herzog includes the same educational short film for soldiers that was featured in Little Dieter, only this time with the addition of navy men watching and ridiculing the inanities of a film shot and presented as if to school children.

Christian Bale has now shown to be almost excessive in his own right by going between ultra-thin (The Machinist and this film) and quite buff (Batman Begins), but he never loses the intensity that makes his characters so memorable. Dengler is another in a line of tremendous performances, a leader by default, not a Rambo but more like Adrien Brody’s character in The Pianist, surviving by his wits with moments of vulnerability and naiveté (the film recounts why he wanted to fly in the first place).

His co-stars, however, are just as compelling, if not more so. Zahn, who is often known for his comedies, plays the prisoner that the audience can identify with the most. Dwight is the frightened one and fully affected by the horrors of the prison camp and starvation.

Rescue Dawn is essential as counter-programming to the slew of summer blockbusters, which are about 9 out of 10 remakes or sequels, with the emphasis on being as profitable at the box office as with merchandise, and meant more for kids than a mature audience. Dieter Dengler’s story is a conventional turn for Herzog only in the sense that it isn’t completely bleak or drenched in madness or abstract. However, to use the oft-used phrase, it’s a must-see. Jack Gattanella
July 4, 2007