Chimpomatic

Rescue Dawn

(dir. Werner Herzog)

Gibraltar Entertainment

German-American Dieter Dengler (no relation to Mark Wahlberg's character in Boogie Nights) likes to fly. So much so, that he joins the US Airforce and finds himself flying covert missions over Vietnam and Laos as the Vietnam War starts to escalate. After being shot down, he is captured by Pathet Lao guerillas and taken to a POW camp, where he meets long detained Americans and Air America 'employees'. Determined to escape, the group hatch a plan - but once they are out of the prison, the jungle proves to be an even more ruthless captor.

German marverick Werner Herzog remakes his own 1997 documentary Little Dieter Needs To Fly with mixed results. Well known for never using storyboards, Herzog brings his documentary-style film making to the project, which coupled with the average cinematography gives the movie an 80's TV movie feel. In fact, if it wasn't for the thrilling story you could occasionally be forgiven for thinking you were watching an episode of Tour Of Duty. With an improvised script.

That improvisation leads to some limitations on the editing - which often seems to work around a scene, rather than present it as well as possible - as well as providing some shockingly jarring special effects (Herzog's first). In turn, the direction does some disservice to what could easily have been a world class performance from Christian Bale, who clearly put everything he had into the role - no doubt studying Dengler's mannerisms in detail from the original documentary. Showing a shocking loss of weight throughout the story, Bale method eats his way through the film - literally devouring a plate of maggots and a snake in the process. Steve Zahn and the ever twitchy Jeremy Davis provide additional support with the cameraderie between the malnourished prisoners varying from intense to downright maniacal - occasionally seeming more like One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest than The Great Escape.

Engrossing despite itself, this is a remarkable story that is well worth taking the time for. You cannot fail to be drawn into the desperation of the situation and the relief and euphoria at the end is simply overwhelming.

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9th Jul 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet