Review of Rescue Dawn (2007) by Mike L — 15 Aug 2009

I am sure that some people will talk about the "indomitable will of the human spirit to survive, and man against nature" when they reference this movie, but that is all bullshit.

First he survives a crash landing of his airplane where the only part of the plane that did not blow up or catch on fire was the pilot, in this case the star of the movie Bale as Dengler. Despite this Bale is able to run away seconds after this crash and avoids capture for a couple of days until he is captured and taken to a prison with 5 other prisoners, including Zahn and Davies. Despite the other prisoners being there 2 plus years once Bale comes in, he proves himself to be the best MacGyver and has an answer for all of their problems and plans their escape. Through this process Zahn and Davies, and the others, portray the slightly insane prisoner role perfectly, however Bale comes in and is all smiles and never looks like he spent more than 6 hours outside his luxury hotel room, even after the 6 months when they actually escape.

Steve Zahn plays the long mistreated prisoner about as good as it gets. However his role is only a set piece to the glory of Bale's Dengler, who makes all the decisions and can do no wrong, even when Zahn gets killed it serves only Bale.

The ending is nothing more than a self glorification of the ego between the director and Dengler (Bale) to the point I was repulsed by the birthday cake kidnapping and the love-fest on the carrier.

A movie that tried to show the best of the human against all odds type of scenario but turned into a case of the actor smirking at the camera and laughing at the audience as opposed to the other way around.