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Movie Review - Rescue Dawn (2007)
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(What this rating means)
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| Director: |
Werner Herzog |
| Starring: |
Christian Bale, Steve Zahn, and Jeremy Davies |
| Rated: |
PG-13 (for some sequences of intense war violence and torture) |
| Length: |
126 minutes |
| Genre: |
Drama/War |
| Tagline: |
A true story of survival... declassified. |
| Studio: |
MGM |
| Website: |
Rescue Dawn |
| Release: |
July 27, 2007 |
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PLOT
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Dieter Dengler (Bale) dreamed of flying since his childhood in wartime Germany. He finally gets the chance, but unfortunately on his very first top-secret mission his plane is shot down
over Laos. Trapped in an impassable jungle far from U.S. control, Dengler is soon captured by notoriously dangerous Pathet Lao soldiers (local equivalent of the Viet Cong).
After undergoing a few methods of torture, Dieter is taken to a small Laotian prison camp, where he meets two American soldiers who have been held captive for two years. Duane (Zahn)
recommends keeping quiet, while the seemingly insane "Gene from Eugene" (Davies) believes they will be released at any moment. Dieter, however, has no intention of sticking around the
camp waiting to be rescued so he orchestrates a plan to break out. One of the most remarkable rescues in modern history ensues.
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JOHNNY'S TAKE
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Rescue Dawn has one goal, and its success can be attributed to its narrow focus on that goal. It has no hidden political agendas to extrapolate, no complex motives to explore,
and no heavy-handed social commentary to exploit. It simply has a story to tell. That's all. The true story of Dieter Dengler's amazing and unlikely survival.
It's a deliberately-paced story that's told through a trio of excellent performances that often says more by showing less. Rather than subject the audience
to extreme images of violence and torture, we're shown quick snapshots. Getting a point across without heavily manipulating the audience? You don't witness much of that these days.
Those of you impatient moviegoers with goldfish attention spans might become restless due to the fact that a quick pace is abandoned for character development, but the end result
is that you really do care for these prisoners. You want Dieter's plan to succeed. You want them to be singularly-minded and escape together. You want them to gun down a Lao
soldier or two.
Credit goes to Bale, Zahn, and Davies for the dedication each gave to their role. The grotesque weight loss of Zahn and Davies (who is literally skin on bones) is immediately
apparent, but watching Bale's transformation from healthy beefcake to gaunt-faced survivor provides the film with a strong sense of realism.
Perhaps it's not the most exhilarating, frenetically-paced war story ever told, but it's certainly one of the most important, and if you're a fan of the genre then it's one
you definitely want to watch.
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ODDS & ENDS
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- Dieter Dengler is the only American to ever break out of a POW camp in the impenetrable Laotian jungle during the Vietnam War.
- Steve Zahn lost 40 pounds for the role.
- My co-worker Malcolm informed me that the dude at the beginning cracking jokes during a war video was in Vegas Vacation and is "The Wiz" from
Seinfeld.
- In 1997, Director Herzog created an acclaimed, Emmy nominated documentary about Dengler, Little Dieter Needs to Fly, in which the real Dieter Dengler, then living a comfortable
life in Northern California, looked back on his escape.
- The Pathet Lao considered capturing an American to be a rare prize. To this day, about 500 Americans remain missing or otherwise unaccounted for in Laos.
- When Dengler was rescued he weighed a mere 90 lbs. - wearing a backpack! In other words, twice that of Nicole Richie.
- As part of his method acting, Bale actually ate maggots and swam in snake-infested waters.
- Rescue Dawn was filmed entirely in reverse, so that the actors could arrive on set having lost, over a period of months, the necessary weight to convey their emaciated
state in the POW camp -- then gain it back more quickly for the beginning of the film.
- Dengler died in 2001 of Lou Gehrig's disease.
- The fate and final whereabouts of Eugene DeBruin remain a mystery.
- Christian Bale is in 3:10 to Yuma with Russell Crowe who is in American Gangster with Josh Brolin who was in Hollow Man with Kevin Bacon.
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MAMA'S APPROVAL
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Language isn't that bad except for a handful of G-d**ns. And it's not even gory or bloody. They toned down the torture that these mean likely went through, focusing instead on
the plan to break out and the development of each of the individuals.
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TRAILER COMPARISON
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If you like the trailer then you should like the film.
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THE GIST
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Rescue Dawn boasts very good acting performances and tells an important story. I wouldn't necessarily say it demands to be seen on the big screen, but if you're
even slightly interested in the subject matter then you should eventually give it a look.
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