Review of Rescue Dawn (2007) by Seth C — 28 Jul 2010

Aside from Zodiac, it's the best movie this year so far. Anyone expecting a typical Vietnam movie may be disappointed. Or perhaps pleasantly surprised. Rather than focus on the battles, it focuses on the POW's...or, specifically, one Dieter Dengler, played by Christian Bale in one of his best performances. He's a first-time pilot who has the misfortune of crash-landing in Laos and is taken prisoner by Viet Cong shortly after. There, he meets others who have been taken prisoner--Gene DeBruin (Jeremy Davies, looking horrifically emaciated) and Duane Martin (a surprisingly great Steve Zahn) among others. Even as they endure various forms of torture, Dieter doesn't lose hope, and eventually cooks up a plan for escape. What happens next I won't spoil.

What I will say is despite its PG-13 rating, the movie's quite brutal. Not so much in terms of violence, but the things the prisoners are forced to do for survival is sometimes hard to watch. Even more so when you realize that unlike a typical Hollywood production, these actors are actually going through some of these things (a pleasant scene involving leeches springs to mind). The movie's low budget doesn't deter anything though--the cinematography captures both the beauty and danger of the jungle perfectly and everything else looks pretty realistic, with the exception of some questionable visual effects during the plane crash.

Even in the company of other great actors, Bale carries the movie mostly by himself, and his gradual weight loss further proves his commitment to his films, even though he'll likely die before he hits 60. Still, it's cool to see how much effort Bale has put into his performance (his accent is a near-perfect mix between American and German).

I've also read complaints on IMDb that Gene DeBruin was portrayed inaccurately in the movie, as testified by his family members and even Dengler himself before his death in 2001. If this is so it's a shame, but it shouldn't distract anyone from how great this movie is.