Rescue Dawn
Vietnam has long been a staple of anti-war filmmakers, as we’ve seen nearly every conceivable cinematic concept put to use, and once again in 2006 we get the (true) story of a downed pilot’s time in a POW camp, in a film so poorly paced it probably should be called “Endless Dawn”. Christian Bale plays the German-born American pilot shot down in Laos during the very early stages of the war. After being given a reasonable offer to sign a disclaimer which would result in early release and being spared the subsequent torture, Bale turns it down and is shipped to a hole in the wall camp run by the Vietcong in the area (complete with midget guard), where he spends the first half of the movie hanging out with the other prisoners before planning and pulling off an escape in the second half which results in him traipsing through the jungle until he is rescued. That’s pretty much it, except that director Werner Herzog decides that he REALLY wants us to feel like we’re stuck in that camp, with endless scenes of night turning to day and on and on as the prisoners ration their food and discuss Bale’s plan for getting out of there. Bale in the role is fine, even if the script lets him down in showing him to be a cocky cowboy type, and he’s ably supported by Steve Zahn (who had some minor Oscar talk float around him for this film) and Jeremy Davies (best known as cinema’s most reviled pussy from Saving Private Ryan) as two other American pilots held there, one of which (Zahn) is desperate to escape himself, while the other (Davies) tries to convince them to keep that kind of chatter down because “eventually” they will be released. Once the escape happens, confusion ensues as several of the prisoners disappear and / or run off in the opposite direction from Bale, never to be referred to again, while Bale and Zahn take off through the jungle, leading to endless scenes of them sitting in the rain, floating downriver, and covering themselves with leaves in order to sleep. In addition, Zahn’s final scene is terribly shot and presented, partly because any emotional impact is purposely diluted and partly because of the absurd decision of making this film in such a way as to suit a PG-13 rating. Also, Herzog gives us a bizarre and inappropriate closing scene as Bale returns to his fellow soldiers and is hailed as a hero. As said, the acting is strong enough, and the bits of humor, when they come (like the pilots’ hilarious running commentary on a training film in an early scene) are welcome, and Zahn’s wild-eyed, traumatized turn is arguably the best in his career. Herzog shows that he certainly knows his way around when shooting in a jungle (not surprising since nearly half his films seem to take place in one), which results in some well-shot cinematography, but overall, the extra long time it seems to take to reach its destination makes it one of the most boring movies of its genre…
5/10