Rescue Dawn The movie is an adaptation of a real life story of capturing and then escaping of german born American Dieter Dengler as a POW in the villages barricaded by dense forest of Vietnam after his aircraft is hit. Audience might expect gunshot rounds, rivers of blood, mutilated dead bodies etc (remember Rambo IV) but these elements of violence have been kept aside in the movie. The movie does show torture and piteous condition of the prisoners but has avoided blood bath. The difficulties faced by these POWs have been shown with good liveliness though. Prisoners live in bamboo prisons, are handcuffed to each other in the nights, have little to eat and got nothing to do the whole day also portrays the notion of mental torture they are going through. Especially when the audience comes to know that some of them have been in that situation from past 2 years. Some of them do hope that they will be set free some day or the other. Dieter however believes that it is they who should try getting free rather than things to happen by their own. He befriends Duane, who by Dieter’s ability to do few things which the others never tried, starts believing in him. Dieter then conceives a plan and they finally run away from the prison. It is but just the beginning for them. Wandering around the jungles trying to find their way to Thailand without food or shelter or rest is what they face. Eventually it is just Dieter who is able to make the escape successfully.
Director Werner Herzog has deliberately avoided special effects and stuck to basics. He has concentrated more on the difficulties and hardships faced by prisoners rather than showing bullets fired from firearms mutilating living human body to dead. He has also given a keen eye on the mental trauma faced by these prisoners. The scene where Dieter offers the shoe to Duane when he says that he is feeling cold, without realizing that he has been killed, shows the mental weariness leading to inability to differentiate between dream and reality. Breaking down of Duane asking Dieter to leave him and go in a scene earlier shows what physical overdrive can do to a person. Making their ways through 7 feet high bushes in the jungle is one such hardship. All these without food make the situation from bad to worse. The shooting locales are fantastic (I should mention that I love greenery). The mountains, waterfalls reminded me that some greenery is still left in the planet.
The one thing which I hated about the movie is that the director has made everybody except the Vietnamese who have captured them talk in whispers. I mean, when they are inside the prison it is understandable to whisper their escape plans to each other, but Dieter and Duane keep on whispering even when they have escaped in the jungle. There might be a logic that people might be following them and that voices travel long in the jungle but whatever the director has in his mind, the execution of it did annoy me. Moreover the pace of the movie also is a little slow which might kill the interest of some audiences.
Post ‘The Machinist’, I always keep on expecting more from Christian Bale. This was one movie which shows how much he is dedicated towards whatever work he does. I don’t understand how but he seems to have developed the ability to lose and gain weight at his will (Watch ‘The Machinist’ if you really wish to learn what I mean). The same prowess is visible here as well. He has lost quite a bit of weight for the role as the movie climaxes. Chewing on live worms and snake show Bale’s dedication to whatever he does (assuming that the worms and snake were real). I would really like this actor to get more good projects to show is abilities more to the audience.
The opening as well the ending scenes are great. When the movie opens in slow motion with scene of aircrafts bombing villages in Vietnam, it strikes upright the irony of visually beautiful but destructive bombings. The ending scene is when Dieter is cheered and when asked to give some words of advice, says: “Empty that which is full. Fill that which is empty. If it itches, scratch it." These were the words of a POW who, with great hardships, has managed to pull himself out of the misery. It shows no patriotism, no bravery, no boastfulness but the reality.
My Rating: 8.00/10.00
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