RESCUE DAWN
Rating: *** ½ (out of ****)
Cast: Christian Bale, Steve Zahn, Jeremy Davies, Galen Yuen,
Director: Werner Herzog
On DVD from Fox.

Werner Herzog’s latest film, Rescue Dawn, is based on his own 1997 documentary Little Dieter Needs to Fly, in which the late Dieter Dengler, a German who became an America fighter pilot in the Vietnam war, described being captured and sent to a POW, as well as his harrowing time in the dangerous jungle after escaping. Little Dieter Needs to Fly is one of Herzog’s best documentaries, and indeed Herzog had talked for years about his desire to turn it into a feature film. The fruit of his labour, Rescue Dawn, has been released on DVD after a disappointing theatrical run last summer, hopefully to find the wide audience that it deserves.

Christian “best-actor-of-his-generation” Bale plays Dengler, and it’s another one of those patented Great Christian Bale Performances. As is often the case with Bale, what gets the most attention is his obvious physical transformation (Bale went on another one of his starvation diets for this film) and his survival of the typically nightmarish Herzogian production (he eats maggots!), but, if you’ve seen Little Dieter Needs to Fly, you’ll notice that he eerily captures Dieter, from his exaggerated mannerisms to his German-tinged voice to Dieter’s essentially optimistic spirit.

The two other major cast members are Steve Zahn and Jeremy Davies as Dieter’s fellow captives. Incredibly, Zahn, an actor best known for playing lame sidekicks in lamer comedies, is every bit as good as Bale. His quiet, tortured performance really gives the feeling of someone who has been held captive for two years. As for Davies, I’m not quite sure what to make of his performance, but there’s no doubting his commitment to the part: he’s so terrifyingly skinny that he makes Bale look downright healthy by comparison.

Herzog has spoken about “the voodoo of locations,” or the fact that filming something on a soundstage is no substitute for filming it in the real location. It’s this way of thinking that has led him to film in torturous jungle locations in the past (fun fact: he’s the only director who has made a film on every continent), and again for Rescue Dawn. In this film, the jungles of Thailand do become as important a character as Dieter. Certainly there are times when Herzog’s jungle imagery is beautiful, but it’s just as often oppressive and claustrophobic.

There are few directors who are as consistently interesting as Herzog. To date he has made 54 films (including documentaries and shorts), and while not all of them are successful, they all have memorable moments and are enormously ambitious. He is best known for the five films he made with the volatile actor Klaus Kinski (Aguirre: The Wrath of God, Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht, Woyzeck, Fitzcarraldo, Cobra Verde), and those five films, with their non-stop stream of unforgettable imagery, are the ones that most fully capture what makes him unique and valuable.

More recently, interest in Herzog has been on the upswing thanks to his successful 2005 documentary Grizzly Man, a genuine crowd-pleaser that ranks among his greatest achievements. Rescue Dawn isn’t quite on the top shelf of Herzog films – the pacing is uneven, and more establishing scenes with Dieter would have helped to better define his character – but unlike many of his movies, it is plot and character-driven, and relatively commercial. It’s also surprisingly entertaining. If you’ve never seen a Herzog movie before, Rescue Dawn is a good place to start.

* * *

For an excellent and quite touching essay about Herzog by Roger Ebert, go to

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071117/PEOPLE/71117002