Directed by: Werner Herzog

Written by: Werner Herzog

Cast: Christian Bale, Steve Zahn

Music by: Klaus Badelt

Cinematography by: Peter Zeitlinger

Editing by: Joe Bini

Distributed by: Metro-Goldwyn Mayer

Werner Herzog is a filmmaker renowned for his extremist wayward sensibility, daring intuition, and knack for (unintentionally) provoking extravagant human confrontational activity. He appears most at ease depicting the missions of men under extreme circumstance, (FITZCARRALDO, AQUIRRE, WRATH OF GOD) who strive, against better judgment, to unnervingly seek out their fundamental quests to bridge the gap between reality and impossibility. A slew of daredevil megalomaniacs (Don Lope de Aquirre, Brian Sweeney Fitzgerald, Cobra Verde, Timothy Treadwell), - some true to life and usually, but not always portrayed by the esteemed, erratic German actor Klaus Kinski – fill the entries in Herzog’s impressive, unflinching directorial resume.

It is somewhat courageously fitting then, that, following the passing comment from one of his former subjects, Vietnam fighter pilot Dieter Dengler, that some of his own Vietnam War experiences were brushed over in the director’s insightful documentary LITTLE DIETER NEEDS TO FLY (1997), Herzog has stubbornly reiterated and expanded his true-to-life story to form a harrowing and gritty first time Hollywood feature, staring Christian Bale.

RESCUE DAWN follows the struggle of the aforementioned Dengler (Bale), an enthusiastic German-born US fighter pilot, who is gunned down and held prisoner in Laos during the Vietnam War in 1965. The bravest among his fellow American and Vietnamese prisoners, (among them a scene-stealing, bearded and barely recognizable Steve Zahn and a twitchy thread-framed Jeremy Davies) he devises a plan to escape his captors, and brave the savage vegetation beyond the fortress. This is a film where Bale goes through another physically grueling endurance test, showcasing why he is among one of the most committed actors working in movies today. As before his total embodiment of character (see also AMERICAN PSYCHO, THE MACHINIST, BATMAN BEGINS) demands that he noticeably loses a colossal about of weight during the film’s progression (one of the film’s trademark authenticities), in a move ‘The Method’ mentor Lee Strasberg would surely be proud of. In addition to this Bale goes through other notably agonizing physical torments that would even make Daniel Craig blush. At certain points in the narrative he is tied up and dragged by a mule (the friction is painfully real), forced to eat live maggots, hurtling down deadly rapids or tearing the skin out of a tangibly real snake by his bare teeth.

But it’s not just the actors who get caught up in the physicalities, the cameraman gets down and dirty too, bringing an additional raw energy and authenticity to proceedings. When at one point our protagonists brave some fierce rapids the camera is noticeably in there too, swirling around uncontrollably - a real testament to Herzog’s bogus determination to, in effect, cage the audience into the action. The camera also doesn’t deter away from Dengler at any point in the film’s progression, making it a sometimes grueling subjective experience for the viewer. I have always admired Herzog for the unquestionable raw and real aesthetic quality he brings to all his films and it is certainly one of his cinematic characteristic traits. He doesn’t betray the audience by switching back and forth between locales, he stays firmly and faithfully with his protagonist during the entire duration of the film and thus implicates us more emotionally into the ordeal.

Beyond anything else you might have read about the film, RESCUE DAWN is about human survival and unflinching determination under the most severe and extreme circumstances. It is perhaps fitting that the political commentary is largely muted – though the opening documentary footage of America’s airborne attack on Vietnam would suggest that Herzog does indeed have something pertinent to say about self-inflicted human mass destruction – as the film is thus allowed the space to breath, and come to life as a particularly entertaining human drama that finally does justice to its main character. Its a pity Dengler isn’t alive to see the finished product, (he died of Lou Gehrig’s disease in 2001) as he surely would have been more than satisfied with this, daringly faithful translation of his extraordinary story.

The only qualm I had with the film is ironically the part that Herzog is said to have been particularly interested in ‘giving back to Dengler’, which is the recognition and greeting he received when he returned back to base. It just felt to me like heavy-handed patriotism, even though the meaning of the scene is supposed to reflect quite possibly the opposite. It’s a shame really as everything that leads up to this moment is handled with such subtle care and devotion that its a bit emotionally jarring when it occurs.

Of course this minor blip at the film’s denouncement shouldn’t in any way deter you from making the effort to see such a potent, enthralling, unapologetically guerrilla-styled piece of film making, and one that is brought to you from one of modern cinema’s truly great living legends.