Rescue Dawn

By Bruce Sanborn

2007
Writer/Director-Werner Herzog
Stars-Christian Bale Steve Zahn Jeremy Davies

One of the many dilemmas in my life that I will never have to face is to be approached by Werner Herzog to shoot a film in the jungle, a venue he returns to in his latest film ‘Rescue Dawn’.

On the one hand, Herzog has created three masterpieces in the most remote and isolated places on earth: ‘Aguirre, Wrath of God’, ‘Fitzcarraldo’ and ‘The White Diamond’. On the other, he has done so under circumstances that would drive any sane person to murder, suicide, heavy drug use or any combination thereof. See the documentary ‘Burden of Dreams’ for proof.

But the chance to work with one of the few true giants of filmmaking must be too much of a temptation for a cast or crew to pass up. It certainly seems that way for Christian Bale who plays Lieutenant Dieter Dengler in the true story of the only U.S. service member to escape from North Vietnamese imprisonment during the Vietnam war.

In 1965 Dengler was a fighter pilot, shot down only 40 minutes into his first flight. Captured and incarcerated, he led the other prisoners in an escape attempt and managed to make his way through the jungle until rescued. Knowing the ending to the film aforehand takes nothing away from this harrowing story. I cannot personally vouch for the accuracy of the film, but I know that it feels more true than any other movie of its kind, due no doubt to Herzog’s legendary attention to detail and honesty.

Dengler himself was a unique character, an eternal optimist who even in the face of his worst enemy managed to retain a sense of humor and grace. For the first time in his career, Bale is up to an acting challenge, playing the Lieutenant with a mixture of determination, wonder and child-like innocence. There is a scene where Dengler has his arms and legs tied to the ground. As his captors are doing so, he informs the leader that he has to go to the bathroom, a plea he repeats several times. He is baffled and astonished that the Vietnamese won’t simply untie him and lead him to the nearest rest room and Bale captures the moment perfectly.

Steve Zahn is cast as Duane Martin, a former pilot for Air America who’s been in the prison camp for a year and a half. Finally breaking free of his comedic pigeonholing, Zahn shows a depth of ability I’m sure he’s waited half a career to display.

Jeremy Davies has the role of a lifetime as Gene McBroom, another former Air America man who’s been held even longer that Martin. Davies must have lived on nothing but water for months to get the P.O.W. look, but get it he did. More than the physicality, Davies has the edge of a man living on the brink of sanity, barely able to hold his psyche together in a world that has been reduced to pain, hunger and humiliation. It’s a performance that should not be overlooked come awards time.

Herzog never sentimentalizes, never lets the audience shirk from its responsibility to understand the ordeal these men are living. This seems about as real as it gets and the director holds us there in the camp, in the jungle, in the night, forcing us to deconstruct our preconceptions about what this sort of incarceration had to involve. Those with softer constitutions should probably avoid the more gruesome aspects of the movie.

Avoiding any political stance, the movie is simply the staggering tale of one man’s ability to survive. It should not be missed.

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