Rescue Dawn
Cast: Christian bale, Steve Zahn, Jeremy Davies, Marshall Bell, Zach Grenier Dir: Werner Herzog Rating: 4/5
In the history of great escapes there is no story like that if Dieter Dengler, the only American to ever break out of a POW camp in the Laotian jungle.
Dieter Dengler (Bale) has dreamed of flying since he was a child, where he lived in wartime Germany, but on his very first, and top secret mission over Laos, he is shot down.
Trapped in an impassible jungle Deiter is soon captured and placed in a camp with fellow Americans who have been there for two years.
But Dengler has no intention of staying in the camp and he dreams up an escape plan.
With fellow prisoner Duane (Zahn) Dengler sets off into the jungle that tests them mentally and physically and becomes one of the most remarkable rescues in modern history.
Director Werner Herzog returns with his second picture on Dieter Dengler, a close friend, after his 1997 documentary Little Deiter Needs to Fly. This time he produces this gritty survival in drama form with Christian Bale at the helm.
Bale turns in another astounding performance as Deiter Dengler, a man who's spirit is never broken as he fights for survival.
He embodies Dengler, once again pushing his body to the limit as he did in The Machinist, proving once again that he is one of the most intense and committed, yet watchable, stars as well as being the best actor around that has never been nominated for an Oscar.
Similarly funny man Steve Zahn puts in a great performance as Duane who has suffered in the POW camp for two years and his spirit is on the point of breaking.
With the help of Dengler he begins to believe that he once again could be free. A change in role for Zahn but he too gives a powerful performance.
The film's politics are subtle as Herzog instead concentrates on Dengler's fight for survival rather than them delving into reason why he was captured trying to avoid issues surrounding Vietnam.
He cleverly slows the speed if the picture to a snail's pace in the middle as he tries to portray the prisoners time in the camp as they struggled to survive against the harsh treatment of the guards, very little food and nothing to do.
Rescue Dawn is a picture of men in dire straits, the toughest of situations, who are forced to look inside themselves digging deep as a a way to survive.
Everything about this film feels real from the harsh treatment, to the severity of the jungle and most of all the men's suffering. A truly great war movie.
Rescue Dawn is out to buy and rent nowFemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw