Rescue Dawn

The Age

Thursday April 3, 2008

Philippa Hawker

Rescue Dawn

Hopscotch, 125 mins, MA, drama, 2006

3.5/5

Director Werner Herzog has been in the jungle before - who could forget the mesmerising madness Aguirre: The Wrath of God, or his rather less engrossing obsessiveness of Fitzcarraldo? But there's a different dynamic at work in Rescue Dawn - his central character is not driven mad by the jungle but embraces the task of surviving in it. Herzog has already made a documentary about the real-life subject of the film, Dieter Dengler, a US Navy pilot who was shot down and captured during his first covert mission over Laos during the Vietnam War. Rescue Dawn's Dengler (Christian Bale, almost as cadaverous as he was in The Machinist) is an over-the-top optimist who is determined to escape the small jungle prison camp where he is held, and to take his suffering, half-crazy fellow prisoners with him. The film relates the story of his escape, in grim yet tropically lush detail, with mud, leeches and snakes. In the end, Herzog is more interested in the physical extremes of this tale of endurance rather than any directly political implications the film might have.

DVD extras include: commentary; behind the scenes; deleted scenes; gallery.