Rescue Dawn
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Movie Reviews of Rescue Dawn
Movie Review: A realistic portrayal of the experiences of POW's
Summary: 5 Stars
This is one of the best films I've seen for a while as it was very thought provoking and afterwards I wanted to know much more about the actual people the events were based around. I found this film a highly realistic portrayal of the experiences of those unfortunate POW's in their years of captivity in the jungle, far from home, with little or no prospect of rescue, the interaction with other prisoners being the only thing that kept them alive. I felt the key characters were portrayed in a way that made the viewer feel in their position. What a terrible reality they were suffering, trying to survive day by day, and being shackled like caged animals by cruel captors, living in their own excrement and facing death daily. I found this film made as big an impact on me as I had felt watching The Deer Hunter, and the reason being the sheer horror of the reality of these people's lives and the futility of their situation.
Whilst I appreciate the family of Eugene Debruin do not feel the character was accurate, I none the less found the portrayal facinating, as THIS person (Eugene) had suffered for over two years before the film's main character appears (Dengler), and the Director does a good job in showing Eugene's suffering and his state of mind that must have been close to the truth of a person in his situation at that time, even if not the actual truth of Debruin himself. I think the character of Eugene shouldn't be taken too literally, and he represents a victim of prolonged incarceration and what is really heartbreaking is that he doesn't appear to survive at the end of the movie. If he is shown as confused or resigned, then if not this exact character in the movie then there would have been hundreds or thousands like him, so I did not interpret the character as being necessarily accurate in precise detail, but the portrayal evokes strong emotions of the hopelessness that must have been felt. The actor Jeremy Davies, did a truly excellent job in the role, not necessarily of the real Eugene, but of the type of long suffering, despairing and resigned POW.
Steve Zahn is incredible as the doomed Duane Martin, fighting for survival, pitiful, incredibly weakened yet somehow surviving weeks on the run in the jungle only to meet the most shocking and horrendous end. By this time the viewer is numbed by the horror that his extremly weak friend witnesses. Regards this friend, and the main character, Dengler, he is portrayed ultimately as the hero not least as he is the only American who actually survives the terrible ordeal and lives to tell the tale, and so this is his story, and Christian Bale is superb in the role. You feel his ordeal every heartaching minute and the outcome is a miracle. There are no clues as to how it will all end for the characters, as they are in an impossible situation from the outset. The fact that there are any survivors at all makes it a story worth telling.
Werner Herzog crafted an incredible film from Dieter Denglers story of survival, making it an historical yet painful tale, which leaves you aching with worry for those that didn't make it out and are still listed as Missing In Action to this day. Its not a war movie and yet war creates the background to the story. It is a movie of survival against impossible odds, and the tragic deaths of so many who died in the jungle whose final stories will never be known and who in time will be forgotten. This film helps us remember the brave attempts at survival of Dieter Dengler, Duane Martin, Eugene Debruin, their friends, and thousands of other POW's. Full marks to Walter Herzog and his excellent cast.
Movie Review: Tale of a brilliant survivor
Summary: 5 Stars
I can't remember the last time I actually found a movie worth seeing in a theatre. I did not see this film in a theatre, but I wish I had!
I first heard of Dieter Dengler from the Guidebook For Marines. His story is mentioned in the Code Of Conduct chapter, as an example of how an American fighting-man should conduct himself as a P.O.W.
As a Naval aviator during the Vietnam War, he served aboard the aircraft-carrier U.S.S. Ranger. Dengler flew an AD Skyraider, a prop-plane designed for close air-support and reconaissance. Assigned to fly a secret mission to bombard targets in Laos, Dengler was shot down, and manged to evade capture for some time.
Captured by Pathet Lao guerrillas, he was brutally beaten, and eventually interned in a small P.O.W. camp with two other Americans and a small group of Thais. All of the others were personnel employed by Air America, except for Duane Martin, who was an Air Force pilot.
Having no intention of staying in this prison, Dengler improvised a number of tools for an escape attempt. He eventually mobilized the others into making an ingenious escape effort. When the time came, Dengler killed the guards with their own weapons. Dengler and Martin set out together, into the jungle, toiling through dense foliage, mud, incessant rain, illness ...and afflicted by such jungle-pests as leeches and insects. Sadly, Martin was later murdered by a Lao farmer. Dengler survived for 23 days in a hostile environment, hunted by Pathet Lao soldiers, before he was eventually rescued by an Air Force helicopter crew.
This movie is a fine portrayal of Dengler's impressive and relentless will to survive.
I do not know where the film was shot, but some truly incredible mountain and jungle landscape is featured throughout.
Sadly, Mr. Dengler is no longer with us. Afflicted with ALS, he passed away on 7 February, 2001.
Mr. Dengler was born in Germany, and witnessed World War II as a child, as Allied forces invaded in 1945. Watching the exploits of Allied fighter-pilots inspired him to become a pilot. As a teenager, he was apprenticed as a machinist, and saved his money to emmigrate to America. At age 18, he sailed to the U.S., and survived on the streets for a short time, before enlisting in the Air Force in 1957, where he served as a gunsmith.
Dengler took the test for aviation late in his enlistment, and passed. However, his enlistment was soon completed, before he could enroll in the program, and he moved to California to attend college. He was accepted into the Navy cadet Program, and was soon commissioned. He originally trained as a Skyraider pilot, but was trained to fly jet-aircraft after his P.O.W. ordeal. After his time in the Navy, Dengler was employed as a test-pilot for TWA.
Another point of interest regarding Mr. Dengler:
While attending S.E.R.E. school, Dengler escaped the simulated P.O.W. camp THREE TIMES, ...and was the only student in his group to actually GAIN weight!
Movie Review: ...and Christian Bale for "Rescue Dawn"...the envelope please...CHRISTIAN BALE!!!
Summary: 5 Stars
Is there anything and any part that Christian Bale cannot do? Honestly,this phenom seems to be finally in the consistent top echelon movies and each time he astounds just as he did as a child in "Empire of the Sun" back in the mid 1980's.
I will say right here that Bale's performance as Dieter Dengler, the shot down Navy pilot who survived torture at the hands of the Laotians in pre-Vietnam War, is nothing short of amazing.He is in every scene in this 2 hour+human wartime drama by Werner Herzog;that it extremely demanding for an actor.It is obvious the amount of starvation weight loss that he underwent to BE Dengler at his lowest as a prisoner in Laos,eating worms and rice!Bale is so in control of his character that the viewer is extremely confident that what is on the screen is Oscar worthy.This entire film hangs on the strength of Bale's sensitive rendering of Dengler.
Without Bale, this film, as fascinating and riveting true story as it is,would be diminished in any other actor's hands.Not since Adrian Brody's Oscar winning role in "The Pianist" has a film so relied on the complete command of the material in the hands of the lead man.This is not to say that the supporting roles are not incredible,because Jeremy Davies and Steve Zahn as the two Americans interred with Bale in the cruel Laos camp are truly standouts as supporting actors."Rescue Dawn" is not so much a War film or a film that makes statements about War (though one is left to infer),but rather an in depth look into the character and makeup of humans in extraordinarily harsh conditions.Anyone would want Dengler as portrayed by Bale as their best friend; loyal,funny,charming,optimistic,resourceful,confident,apologetic and most of all incredibly and refreshingly innocent.
This film is so good all around that I find no fault with any of it.It is slow (it needs to be) and deliberate.Much of the dialog is barely above a hushed whisper.Close attention must be paid.Herzog puts his audience in the bamboo prison with the six captives.He shackles us nightly with the prisoners.Herzog allows the viewer to be a living but silent partaker in their incredible and inhumane suffering .We move through thick jungle brush while escaping our captors and we watch our friends die viciously.
ACADEMY AWARD TELECAST LIVE:
....and finally,Christian Bale in "Rescue Dawn"....the envelope please...(rustle,rustle,opens envelope)...and the winner is....(pause and a hush) CHRISTIAN BALE!!! (The audience goes wild and Bale is frankly surprised that he just is finally acknowledged as a true actor's actor).You'll see!
Movie Review: A dramatization of a real prisoner of war story set in Laos 1966
Summary: 5 Stars
Werner Herzog is a wonderful filmmaker and everything he does is worth seeing. This movie is a dramatization of the events recounted in his 1997 documentary "Little Dieter Needs to Fly". Because it is a dramatization, some of the events in the movie are conflated, and some of the characters are different than the real life people with those names. For example, Jeremy Davies gives a wonderful performance as Eugene McBruin. In the movie, McBruin provides threats and resistance to what Dengler is trying to do to survive. He comes across as weak, broken by years of captivity, and unnecessarily contrary to the idea of escape. However, his family rejects that portrayal. This is an especially important point because there were reports of his being alive and in Laos until the 1990s.
The dramatizations aside, this is a very good movie. Dengler was a German who was a child at the end of World War II. His hometown was on the receiving end of air attacks from the allies and a particularly low and close flight by one pilot transformed Dieter and form that moment on he needed to fly. He emigrated to the United States and joined the military so he could fly. As the movie portrays, he was shot down in February 1966 and eventually captured, tortured, and imprisoned in Laos.
Eventually, he and his fellow inmates made a plan for escape and the latter half of the movie recounts that attempt in June 1966 and what happened afterwards. The story is quite intense and Christian Bale does a fine job portraying Dengler. Steve Zahn gives a very moving and emotional performance as Duane Martin, Dengler's closes friend among the prisoners. Obviously, Dengler escaped and survived and we share the delight of his former crew when he returns to the ship. And we share Dengler's sorrow at the loss and pain he suffered in captivity and during the difficult escape process.
In real life, Dengler left the service and became a test pilot and survived four additional crashes. He later became a pilot for TWA. He died of Lou Gherig's disease in 2001.
I give this movie a strong recommendation.
Reviewed by Craig Matteson, Ann Arbor, MI
Movie Review: howdy
Summary: 5 Stars
A very good movie.
unlike any war, vietnam, or prisoner of war story i can remember watching or reading.
it is the story of Dieter Dengler, the only US Navy pilot to escape from the Pathet Lao.
The story is a contrast of opposing ways of looking at both the world and yourself.
Dengler's vs. two other prisoners in the camp, one of resignation, the other one an outward optimism (rescue will come before the rainy season starts), but really another form of resignation and pessimism (because it isn't joined to action but to waiting).
What i find extraordinary is not the survival of people in such awful conditions, but how a single person, sustaining what really is an absurd optimism can uplift and motivate the whole group.
I think this is the message that the director wishes people to take home, optimism maybe misplaced, but without it hope flees. It is better to be an out of place foolish optimist then to resign yourself to your surroundings and give up.
It is an extraordinary message and it is provided to us in the movie with forcefulness and with a subdued passion for life that really ought to rub off on each viewer as she/he looks at their lives and says "things really aren't that bad", "i just need to get moving in the right direction", "with the right attitude-like Dengler's".
Where do people like this come from?
How do they sustain their optimism in situations that destroy other people?
If i can't be that person, how do i get to meet one and learn from watching them?
It is a worthwhile to own movie, i can only imagine what Dengler was like in person from watching the movie, i've never personally met anyone quite like him.
so i'm glad i "met" him in the movie.