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| Rescue Dawn | 
 enlarge | Director: Werner Herzog
Actors: Christian Bale, Steve Zahn, Jeremy Davies
Studio: MGM Home Entertainment
Category: DVD
List Price: $19.98
Buy Used: $2.15
You Save: $17.83 (89%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  81 reviews
Sales Rank: 449
Format: Ac-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, Dvd-video, Subtitled, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), Spanish (Original Language), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), French (Dubbed), Spanish (Dubbed)
Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 126
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: MGMDM109357D
UPC: 027616093578
EAN: 0027616093578
ASIN: B000WMA6R8
Theatrical Release Date: July 27, 2007
Release Date: November 20, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
A us fighter pilots epic struggle of survival after being shot down on a mission over laos during the vietnam war. Studio: Tcfhe/mgm Release Date: 06/10/2008 Starring: Christian Bale Run time: 126 minutes Rating: Pg13 Director: Werner Herzog
Amazon.com
In the tradition of The Great Escape and The Deer Hunter, Rescue Dawn is Werner Herzog's take on the pulse-pounding POW genre. Unlike most such efforts, however, his isn't just based on a true story, it's a remake of his 1997 documentary Little Dieter Needs to Fly. German-born Dieter Dengler (Christian Bale, who first made his mark in Steven Spielberg's prison camp drama Empire of the Sun) has longed to pilot a plane since he was a boy. When he joins the Navy during the Vietnam War, he gets his wish. Then he's shot down over Laos. Though he survives, Dengler is captured by the Pathet Lao. Through his internment, he meets Duane Martin (Steve Zahn in his finest performance), with whom he becomes fast friends. While Dengler is arrogant and resourceful, Martin is patient and humble. With Dengler's assistance, the prisoners escape, but the untamed wilderness turns out to be just as dangerous (cinematographer Peter Zeitlinger ably captures its cruel beauty). Those who've seen Little Dieter know how this tale ends. Suffice to say, Herzog's reenactment makes for rousing entertainment. If the film has a flaw, it's that the rah-rah finale plays like something from out of a mainstream sports movie. That quibble aside, the actors, including Jeremy Davies as a delusional campmate and Toby Huss as a fellow flyer, are aces. And Herzog, who's been concentrating on nonfiction, like Grizzly Man, proves he can direct a Hollywood-style action epic with the best of 'em. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
Beyond Rescue Dawn 
Little Dieter Needs to Fly | 
Christian Bale Films | 
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Stills from Rescue Dawn
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| Customer Reviews: Read 76 more reviews...
'If it is full, empty it. If it is empty, fill it.' November 23, 2007
118 out of 126 found this review helpful
So speaks Dieter Dengler when asked for comment at the end of his journey of jungle captivity in Laos. RESCUE DAWN is as much about the courage and fortitude of a captured soldier during wartime as it is about a true incident. From the inherent optimism of pilot Dieter Dengler (played with commitment and finesse by Christian Bale) the story transcends biopic and offers lessons for life in general; the human spirit can be indefatigable.
Writer/director Werner Herzog has expanded his 1997 documentary about Dieter Dengler and in doing so he has provided us entry into the psyches of soldiers captured by the enemy and the extraordinarily trying conditions in which they survive. The optimistic and eager Dengler is sent on a classified mission to bomb certain targets in Laos in 1965 with his fellow pilots including his best friend Spook (Toby Huss). Denlger is shot down and captured, interrogated, tortured, and placed in a prison with fellow inmates Duane (Steve Zahn in a career changing superb performance), Gene (the emaciated and excellent Jeremy Davies), Phisit (Abhijati 'Meuk' Jusakul), and Procet (Lek Chaiyan Chunsuttiwat). The living conditions are deplorable: the men are starved, chained together making even the possibility of caring for bodily functions negligible, and the moral is low. Dengler changes that using his ingenuity and immediately plans for escape. Duane aids Dengler but Gene fears the consequences of an aborted escape attempt. Yet with Dengler's expertise and cunning the escape into the jungle is planned and is essentially successful - until the other enemy (the jungle) reduces the forces to one. As Dengler is rescued he is left with the ghosts of his fellow inmates, a factor that will haunt him and alter his life after rescue.
Christian Bale's performance is near perfect as are the performances by Zahn and Davies. The film feels too long at times but that also suggests that director Herzog wants the audience to understand the mental deterioration and stagnant time cycle that cripples prisoners of war. The atmosphere of the prison camp is presented well and if the ending of the film becomes a bit too 'Hollywood', after the 2+ hours of prison confinement that is somewhat of a relief. RESCUE DAWN is a powerful film with some of the best acting of the year's crop and certainly deserves the attention of a wide audience. Grady Harp, November 07
 howdy November 29, 2007
31 out of 38 found this review helpful
A very good movie.
unlike any war, vietnam, or prisoner of war story i can remember watching or reading.
it is the story of Dieter Dengler, the only US Navy pilot to escape from the Pathet Lao.
The story is a contrast of opposing ways of looking at both the world and yourself.
Dengler's vs. two other prisoners in the camp, one of resignation, the other one an outward optimism (rescue will come before the rainy season starts), but really another form of resignation and pessimism (because it isn't joined to action but to waiting).
What i find extraordinary is not the survival of people in such awful conditions, but how a single person, sustaining what really is an absurd optimism can uplift and motivate the whole group.
I think this is the message that the director wishes people to take home, optimism maybe misplaced, but without it hope flees. It is better to be an out of place foolish optimist then to resign yourself to your surroundings and give up.
It is an extraordinary message and it is provided to us in the movie with forcefulness and with a subdued passion for life that really ought to rub off on each viewer as she/he looks at their lives and says "things really aren't that bad", "i just need to get moving in the right direction", "with the right attitude-like Dengler's".
Where do people like this come from?
How do they sustain their optimism in situations that destroy other people?
If i can't be that person, how do i get to meet one and learn from watching them?
It is a worthwhile to own movie, i can only imagine what Dengler was like in person from watching the movie, i've never personally met anyone quite like him.
so i'm glad i "met" him in the movie.
If you want nonstop action, go elsewhere... November 25, 2007
22 out of 24 found this review helpful
I decided to pick up Rescue Dawn on Blu-ray as a blind buy after reading so many positive reviews of the film. Overall, I was not disappointed!
First off, trailers for the DVD on television will make the movie appear to be packed with action. It's not. It's a character driven drama more than anything else, so if that's not what you're looking for go snatch up Die Hard 4 (another great movie). What I found truly compelling is that you could see the characters' actual physical and mental changes throughout the story - especially Christian Bale's - and thus feel more emotionally attached to the characters and their fates. Aside from the story itself, the movie looks beautiful in high definition (lots of lush green jungle scenes) and is very tastefully shot. The sound is quite nice, too, although I don't have an audio rig capable of playing the DTS-HD soundtrack.
Overall, I'd definitely recommend this to fans of drama or war movies.
'Survivor': Laos, 1965 Edition July 27, 2007
19 out of 31 found this review helpful
There's nothing quite like the survivor story. 'Lord of the Flies,' 'Robinson Crusoe,' 'Midnight Express,' and more recently the 'Survivor' TV series and Mel Gibson's `Apolcalypto' continue to capture our imagination. Set in 1965 at a time when America is hardly cognizant that the conflict is turning into war, true tale "Rescue Dawn," features Navy pilot, Dieter Dengler (Christian Bale) all gung ho to fly with childhood memories of a pilot who waved at him flying near his house. Grown, he is going on a top secret mission in Laos, in what seems to be a simple intervention. The movie shows that mission go awry when he bombs enemy facilities and is shot down in the jungle. Miraculously, and not too worse for wear, he is thrown from the wreckage of his incinerated plane, only to flee from the marshes, then through the jungle in enemy territory.
He gives it his best effort: Relying on the river, hiding with camouflage, laying low, and keeping noise at a minimum, there isn't, nevertheless, anywhere to go. They eventually capture him, and being a loyal military man, he refuses to sign the papers implicating the "Imperial" power of the United States. Grimly, he is given terrible treatment. To bring him to docile resistance, they use many methods, including tying him upside down with an ant hill attached to his head.
Once broken down they send him to a bamboo facility. There Dieter is tied down, handcuffed and shackled to a wooden beam. He keeps close quarters with fellow prisons, including some Americans. He's shocked to learn, they too, were on top secret missions well before his. Having one native prisoner who speaks the language helps, but noticing the Americans, particularly Duane (Steve Zahn) and Eugene (Jeremy Davies), so emaciated does not. Both are worn, with Eugene showing signs of a fragile psyche, one not inclined to take risk. Duane is more friendly and resourceful for information. Which is essential, for their prison becomes as daunting for escape as Alcatraz. Seeming labyrinthine with high mountains, thick jungles, dangerous animals, and hardly a compass, "The jungle is the prison," as Duane asserts. That is if they can get past their handcuffs and guards with machine guns to begin with.
Much of Dieter's dilemma is getting everyone to see the advantage of escape. Particularly Eugene wants to leave during the Monsoon season, so they have enough water and their tracks can't be traced. That shows reality well enough, but he's mostly delusional, thinking they'll release him by the next monsoon when he's clearly already been through at least one already. Having meager food rationing doesn't help their strength or reasoning abilities, so Dieter understandably must work quickly.
`Rescue Dawn' just like the men knows when to go on its feet and when to lay low. Anticipation creeps along as we find what ingenuity the captives can muster with the lowest of resources. Besides genuine performances, especially by Bale as the beleaguered hero, Director Werner Herzog keeps it real by giving us such close shots or terrain and foliage we find ourselves flinching many times throughout. The timing of each endangerment is done briskly enough with a prologue that makes us understand the men's dilemma and feel it like a first-person perspective. Impeccably crafted 'Rescue Dawn' is one riveting true life adventure.
Rescue Dawn - War Drama Based on a Real POW December 18, 2007
17 out of 18 found this review helpful
Rescue Dawn is unique among war films. It's not the fast paced action thriller of so many fictionalized war movies, yet it offers the story of a real man told tastefully through suspense and drama. For those looking for graphic battle gore, this isn't the movie for you. If you can take the time to study and appreciate how a horrendous situation can impact a man's thoughts and identity, you will find a lot to learn from here.
Christian Bale plays Dieter Dengler, a pilot shot down at the onset of the Vietnam War in neighboring Laos. He miraculously survives the crash and has to contend with his capture and reeducation by his communist captors. He is eventually taken to a camp where there are other Americans. The rest of the plot, while long, is best experienced without an outline.
Bale's acting is great. The supporting cast is equally as impressive, especially Steve Zahn as Duane and Jeremy Davies as Gene. The lush rain-forest is also a character in this movie, and the cinematography beautifully captures one of the world's most awe-inspiring and dangerous places.
The story was previously told in Werner Herzog's documentary, "Little Dieter Needs to Fly." Little Dieter Needs to Fly The script is nicely written, but much of it still comes across as a documentary. The director uses suspense and time to convey the anxiety of the situation. That's part of the reason wider film audiences are turned off or left wanting more.
I suspect that this movie would have had more visual impact in theatres. Unfortunately, it never reached wide theatrical release in the USA. The closest viewing most of us can have is to try to see the Blu-Ray version, which is visually stunning.
Ultimately, what will a man do to survive such an ordeal? What would you do to survive? This movie is a careful study that will appeal to film lovers. It isn't pro or against anything. It is simply the story of one man's ordeal.
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