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Rescue Dawn is a 2006 Epic film War film drama film written and directed by Werner Herzog, based on the true story of Dieter Dengler (played by Christian Bale), a German Americans pilot who was shot down and captured by villagers sympathetic to the Pathet Lao during an American military campaign in the Vietnam War. Steve Zahn, Jeremy Davies, and Toby Huss have prominent supporting roles in the film.
In 1997, Herzog made a documentary film about Dengler titled Little Dieter Needs to Fly. Rescue Dawn, which focuses on Dengler's experiences as a prisoner of war, began shooting in Thailand in August 2005. It received critical acclaim, but was a box office failure.
Dengler immediately plans to escape, but receives only grudging support from the other prisoners. All are suffering from malnutrition, unhygienic conditions, and abuse by the guards. After several months, the food supply worsens further, and the prisoners learn that the starving guards are planning to kill them and return to their homes, so they agree to put Dieter's long-prepared plan into action. This involves escaping through a weakened section of the perimeter fence, dividing into two groups, circling the perimeter fence in opposite directions, converging on the guard hut during the lunch hour to overwhelm the guards, and contacting the American forces for rescue.
Due to one party of prisoners disobeying Dengler's orders, the escape does not go according to plan, and nearly all the guards end up being shot. With insufficient equipment and supplies, the prisoners disperse in the jungle. Dengler and Martin form one group, while Gene and To leave together to an uncertain fate.
Dengler and Martin head towards the Mekong River with a plan to cross over into Thailand by fashioning a crude raft, but they run afoul of rapids and a waterfall. Martin gets progressively weaker as they wander through the jungle on foot, and, after Dengler fails to signal an American helicopter by starting a fire, he and Martin stumble into a small village, where a mob of angry villagers decapitate Martin. Dengler escapes and flees back into the jungle, hiding from the pursuing villagers. A few days later, he is finally rescued by an American helicopter and taken to a hospital in a U.S. compound, but kept isolated, as his mission was classified. Eventually, his squadron members are allowed to visit, and they arrange his escape back to his ship, where the whole crew welcomes him as a hero.
Dengler and fellow POW Duane W. Martin made their eventual run from their prisoner camp into dense jungle. Martin was killed by an enraged Laotian villager, but Dengler was able to continue on. Two rescue helicopters were scrambled to rescue Dengler, dropping a cable down to the human figure they spotted below. They winched him on board, but, fearful that he could be a Viet Cong suicide bomber, the pararescue crewman, A1C Michael Leonard from Lawler, Iowa, pinned Dengler to the helicopter floor and searched him. Dengler told Leonard that he was a Navy pilot who had been shot down and captured and recently escaped.
Herzog, fascinated by the cruelties of man and nature, became interested in Dengler's story and made the documentary Little Dieter Needs to Fly in 1997. When he chose to revisit the story in a cinematic theatrical version, he cast Christian Bale as Dengler. Compared to Little Dieter Needs to Fly, Rescue Dawn understates the suffering of the prisoners, including omitting some of the worst torture experienced by Dengler, as the film is rated PG-13.Winter, Jessica. "Re-orchestrated, scripted and rehearsed: How Werner Herzog handles the truth." Slate, July 5, 2007. Retrieved: December 13, 2015.
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The film depicts six total prisoners in Dengler's camp, while in real life there were seven. Herzog said he found the writing to be difficult with seven characters, and six was a more manageable number.
Jerry DeBruin, brother of Eugene DeBruin, created a website critical of Herzog and the film on which he claimed that several characters and events in the film are falsely portrayed. On the same website, Phisit Intharathat, the only survivor of Dengler's group of prisoners other than Dengler, also stated that the film contains inaccuracies. The site claims that during his imprisonment, DeBruin taught his cellmates English, shared his food, and even returned after escaping to help an injured cellmate. In the film, Dengler formulates the entire escape plan, along with uncuffing the prisoners' handcuffs with a nail. According to Jerry DeBruin, the prisoners waited for two weeks before telling him of the plan, which had been devised before his arrival. Rescue Dawn: The Truth. Retrieved: July 10, 2010.
Herzog acknowledged that DeBruin acted heroically during his imprisonment, refusing to leave while some sick prisoners remained, and probably would have written the character differently, but he was unaware of this information until after the film had been completed. Intharathat and Jerry DeBruin stated that they made multiple attempts to meet with Herzog to ensure the film's accuracy, but without success.
Opening in six locations in the United States on July 4, 2007, the film grossed $110,326 its opening weekend. After expanding to 500 theaters on July 24, it earned $1,650,282, enough to finish in a distant 11th place at the weekend box office. "July 27–29, 2007 Weekend." Box Office Mojo. Retrieved: July 10, 2007. The film's revenue dropped by 66% its second week in wide release, earning $560,903 and falling to 18th place. "August 3–5, 2007 Weekend." Box Office Mojo. Retrieved: December 14, 2015.
| "In Rescue Dawn, filmed in the jungles of Thailand, there is never the slightest doubt we are in the jungle. No movie stars creeping behind potted shrubbery on a back lot. The screen always looks wet and green, and the actors push through the choking vegetation with difficulty. We can almost smell the rot and humidity." |
| —Roger Ebert, writing in the Chicago Sun-Times |
Kirk Honeycutt, writing in The Hollywood Reporter, said actor Bale's performance was "most complex and compelling". He praised Herzog for his use of "lush jungle locations in Thailand, eloquent camera work and an unobtrusive but powerful music score", which brought to life the "story of a man in the wilderness battling the elements on his own terms".Honeycutt, Kirk. "Bottom Line: A small miracle -- a smart popcorn movie." The Hollywood Reporter, July 3, 2007. Retrieved: July 8, 2010.
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times called Rescue Dawn "perhaps the most believable movie that Herzog has made", while exclaiming: "There is nothing in it we cannot, or do not, believe. I was almost prepared to compare it to the classic storytelling of John Huston when I realized it had crucial Herzogian differences".Ebert, Roger. Rescue Dawn. Chicago Sun-Times, July 12, 2007. Retrieved: December 14, 2015.
In the San Francisco Chronicle, Walter Addiego wrote that the film was "an old-fashioned prisoner-of-war movie that becomes much more because of writer-director Werner Herzog's admiration for the remarkable true story of its protagonist, Dieter Dengler". He thought the director "found an actor capable of conveying the Herzog-ian hero—wounded, a holy fool, a crackpot, a dreamer of outsized dreams—in everyone."Addiego, Walter. "A prisoner of war, deep in the jungle, proves he's invincible." San Francisco Chronicle July 13, 2007. Retrieved: December 14, 2015.
Scott Bowles of USA Today said the film was "cold and unforgiving and chilling to behold". He declared: "War stories don't get much more harrowing or detached than Rescue Dawn, and that's both blessing and curse for the Werner Herzog film."Bowles, Scot. "Review: 'Rescue Dawn' is chillingly good." USA Today, July 15, 2007. Retrieved: December 14, 2015.
The film was not without its detractors, however. Rick Groen of The Globe and Mail, felt that "The strangely hybrid result, half Herzog and half Hollywood, plays like its own battleground. Sometimes, the tension is fascinatingly productive; other times, all we get is the worst of both worlds".Groen, Rick. Review: 'Rescue Dawn'." The Globe and Mail (Toronto), July 2007. Retrieved: December 14, 2015. Equally unimpressed was Paula Nechak of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, who called Rescue Dawn "a noble effort that can't quite make itself unique in a saturated genre", adding that Herzog "already has covered much of the tropical terrain of his long-delayed action film in his 1997 documentary Little Dieter Needs To Fly".Nechak, Paula. "Pilot's desperate jungle escape saga fails to take off." Seattle Post-Intelligencer, July 12, 2007. Retrieved: December 14, 2015. Alternatively, J. Hoberman of The Village Voice, said the film "rivals Apocalypto as a jungle marathon, has all this and more". He also noted that "Bale even looks authentically starved (as in The Machinist). But seeing Dengler's adventure staged hardly seems more real than hearing his account—although, as conventionally framed and lit as it is, Rescue Dawn is the closest thing to a 'real' movie that Herzog has ever made."Hoberman, J. "Man down." The Village Voice June 26, 2007. December 14, 2015.
Writing for The New York Times, Matt Zoller Seitz said the "story’s basis in fact doesn’t inoculate it against charges of predictability. Klaus Badelt’s score can be intrusively emphatic. And the triumphant ending—in which Dengler is welcomed back to his carrier with applause and speeches—is disappointingly conventional". Overall though, he did commend the film, stating, "'Rescue Dawn' is a marvel: a satisfying genre picture that challenges the viewer’s expectations".Seitz, Matt Zoller. "A Vietnam P.O.W. story, tangling with the vines of convention." The New York Times, July 4, 2007. Retrieved: December 14, 2015.
James Berardinelli, writing for ReelViews, called Rescue Dawn "a solid effort from Herzog that fans of the genre should actively seek out" and noted that "Herzog understood when he made Little Dieter Needs to Fly that the ex-pilot's story would make an excellent feature. It's surprising it has taken him so long to make that movie." Berardinelli also commented that "Christian Bale continues to amaze with his ability and range. He may be the most versatile under-40 performer today. No role seems to be beyond him, and he has worked with some of the best directors of his era".Berardinelli, James. "Review: 'Rescue Dawn' (United States, 2006)." ReelViews, July 2007. Retrieved: December 14, 2015.
Describing some pitfalls, Elizabeth Weitzman of the NY Daily News said there was "an odd emotional disconnect leading up to the climactic escape, which can be traced directly to the performances".Weitzman, Elizabeth. "Flawed movie, great escape." NY Daily News, July 3, 2007. Retrieved: December 14, 2015. Although quick to admit that "Herzog builds suspense from the start, and the movie is shot spectacularly", ultimately, Weitzman was disappointed, saying: "There is a great movie in Werner Herzog's Vietnam saga, Rescue Dawn. Unfortunately, it's about 30 minutes too long. Although the rest of this based-on-truth adventure is woven with powerful moments, only toward the end will it hold you completely in its grip."
| "In a story that begs for some introspection and understanding of what is going on inside its lead character, this Dieter has only the Tom Cruise cockiness that made Top Gun such an iconic experience for filmgoers in the '80s. But by now we've seen the formulaic pattern again and again in summer blockbusters ..." |
| —Paula Nechak, writing in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer |
Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune, however, was not moved by the storytelling, writing: " Rescue Dawn is Herzog's first English-language screenplay, and this is part of its problem: The hushed conversations between prisoners sound only fitfully idiomatic. Also – crucially – Herzog can't find a way to make his own big finish feel authentic, even if things did happen roughly this way."Phillips, Michael. "Rescue Dawn." Chicago Tribune, July 2007. Retrieved: December 14, 2015. On the other hand, critic Leonard Maltin praised the film, which he called a "Gripping reworking of Herzog's 1997 documentary Little Dieter Needs to Fly", and an "edge-of-your-seat POW story".Maltin 2008, p. 1145.
Various critics included the film on their lists of the top 10 best films of the year, such as V. A. Musetto of the New York Post, who called it one of the best films of 2007. "Metacritic: 2007 Film Critic Top Ten Lists." Metacritic, January 2, 2008.
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