Rescue Dawn [dir. Werner Herzog]

2007, 126 minutes
w/ Christian Bale, Steve Zahn & Jeremy Davies
[An auteur like Werner Herzog doing a Vietnam pic thirty years after Apocalypse Now and twenty after Full Metal Jacket? And based on a documentary that he already filmed ten years earlier? You may believe you've seen everything there is to see about Vietnam, and that may be true, but you've never seen it through eyes quite like Herzog, or Dieter Dengler's. The film wastes little time packing Dengler (Bale) into a plane and with some questionable CGI crashing him into a Vietnamese jungle before slowing down the plot and letting you breathe in the air and hear the footsteps of what could be a barrage at any moment. Dengler ends up in a P.O.W. camp with Americans Steve Zahn and Jeremy Davies, who have over time become more or less delirious and hopeless. Dengler, though, is a hero and absolutely refuses to accept their fate. Much of the movie is spent in planning an escape as well as the torture the prisoners [there are seven in total] are put through. The three lead actors get down to about 130 pounds, Davies possibly bottoming out at a shocking 110 by the looks of the ribcage sticking out of his chest. Herzog being one of the most dedicated directors to touch a camera predictably gets wonderfully natural performances out of his actors by extreme method acting -- none of them were given trailers, or shoes, for that matter during filming. Say what you will about the plot that follows, which is almost completely non-fiction, but Herzog has offered up what's probably his most accessible film to date while still being able to make an important character out of nature and its beauty.]

***3/4