Rescue Dawn (2006)

Director:

Werner Herzog

Writer:

Werner Herzog (written by)

Release Date:

27 July 2007 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Biography | Drama | War

Tagline:

A true story of survival... declassified.

Plot:

A US Fighter pilot's epic struggle of survival after being shot down on a mission over Laos during the Vietnam War.

Plot Keywords:

Pilot | Laos | Escape | Vietnam War | German American

Awards:

1 win & 4 nominations

Cast

Zach Grenier	...	Squad Leader
Marshall Bell	...	Admiral
Christian Bale	...	Dieter
Toby Huss	...	Spook
Pat Healy	...	Norman
GQ	...	Farkas (as Gregory J. Qaiyum)
James Oliver	...	Jet Pilot
Brad Carr	...	U.S. Navy Pilot
Saichia Wongwiroj	...	Pathet Lao Guard
François Chau	...	Province Governor (as Francois Chau)
Teerawat Mulvilai	...	Little Hitler (as Teerawat 'Ka-Ge' Mulvilai)
Mr. Yuttana Muenwaja	...	Crazy Horse (as Yuttana Muenwaja)
Kriangsak Ming-olo	...	Jumbo
Somkuan 'Kuan' Siroon	...	Nook the Rook
Chorn Solyda	...	Walkie Talkie

Also Known As:

I avgi tis apodrasis (Greece) [el]
L'alba della libertà (Italy) [it]
O Sobrevivente (Brazil) [pt]
Operaatio Rescue Dawn (Finland) [fi]
Rescate al Amanecer (Argentina) (DVD title) [es]
Rescue Dawn (Germany) [de]
Safak harekati (Turkey: Turkish title) (DVD title) [tr]
Secours à l'aube (Canada: French title) [fr]
Senjô kara no dasshutsu (Japan) [ja]

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for some sequences of intense war violence and torture.

Runtime:

126 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

SDDS | Dolby Digital | DTS

Certification:

UK:12A | Ireland:15A | USA:PG-13 | Netherlands:16 | Canada:13+ (Québec) | Canada:14A (Alberta/British Columbia/Ontario) | Finland:K-13 | Australia:MA | Brazil:14 | Singapore:PG | Singapore:M18 (DVD rating) | New Zealand:M | Argentina:13 | South Korea:15 | Spain:18 | Portugal:M/12

Filming Locations:

Thailand

Company:

Gibraltar Films

Trivia:

The film was shot in reverse continuity so Christian Bale, having worked hard to lose weight for the role, would appear the gauntest at the end, and then could simply gain the pounds back over the course of filming, working backwards through time so that when Bale returned to his average weight he would be filming his scenes as Dengler prior to being taken prisoner.

Goofs:

Errors in geography: During the night time jungle scenes, calls of the Fowler's Toad (Bufo fowleri) are clearly heard. These toads are only found in North America.

Quotes:

Dieter: Empty what is full. Fill what is empty. Scratch what itches.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Jumper (2008)

Soundtrack:

Dangerous Games

Outstanding tale of survival

If you're a big fan of the mad German genius Werner Herzog, you might be disappointed in this, his first foray into Hollywood film-making. This is polished and not at all experimental. However, to me it feels like Herzog, when he stepped up to the plate, said to himself, "Well, I can make an American film. And I can make a better one than 95% of American films." And there's nothing wrong with that. The film is a dramatization of the events retold in Herzog's earlier documentary Little Dieter Needs to Fly. Christian Bale plays Dieter Dengler, an American citizen and German emigré who had one of the most impressive survival instincts ever seen in a human being. Shot down in Laos in the opening throes of the Vietnam War, he was taken to a brutal POW camp where he met two other American POWs (Jeremy Davies and Steven Zahn in the film) and three Asian men who had worked with the enemy. The two Americans had been there for an average of a couple of years, and had all but given up hope (the Davies character is sure there will be peace soon enough). Through his amazing ingenuity, Dieter planned a heroic escape. Most of the movie takes place in the POW camp. Most of what I remember from Little Dieter Needs to Fly, which I saw around two years ago, is the escape. It's a disturbing, horrifying tale of survival. I would have liked this part to be the longer, but it works very well. It's certainly harrowing. I was disappointed that one of the images I really remember from the original film did not appear: the bear that stalked Dieter during his final days wandering in the jungle. He considered it almost a friend, but in the back of his mind realized it was following him because it wanted to eat him. Herzog keeps things extremely subtle, telling them very much the way they happened. The story develops more like real life, not like a movie. It keeps melodrama to a minimum. My only problem is how it ends. The ending is way too boisterous and uplifting. Dieter Dengler was most definitely an upbeat kind of guy, but his suffering and the awful things that he saw – heck, with the awful things that we just experienced with him, so vivid is this movie – don't lead well to the celebration that ends the movie. I very much liked this film, and think it is one of the best I've seen so far this year.