Rescue Dawn

2007 "A true story of survival... declassified."
7.3| 2h0m| PG-13| en
Details

A US Fighter pilot's epic struggle of survival after being shot down on a mission over Laos during the Vietnam War.

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Reviews

AutCuddly Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,
Aiden Melton The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.
Kien Navarro Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.
Scarlet The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.
zkonedog When I settled in to watch "Rescue Dawn", I was ready for a terse, taut treatise on being captured behind enemy lines during the Vietnam War. What I got instead was a ham-acted, goofy-themed war flick that I struggled to get through.For a basic plot summary, "Rescue Dawn" tells the real-life story of pilot Dieter Dengler (Christian Bale) being shot down and captured at the very beginning of the Vietnam War.The most glaring problem with this film is that the tone is completely wrong for a war flick (based on a true story or not). Dengler is never without a goofy smile on his face, he doesn't seem to respond to emotional situations, and towards the end he seems to forget everything he had previously experienced. Thus, there is a total lack of drama throughout the production. I even found some of the scenes bordering on offensive considering their portrayal of the U.S. Military.It doesn't help that the usually-incredible Christian Bale is given such a barren role/script to work with. One could easily say this is his "worst role ever", but I think it's only because the whole shebang is a mess and never really gets into any meaty drama or emotional material that actually requires acting.Overall, I believe that director Werner Herzog really screwed this one up. It is (up to this point) the worst "war film" I have ever seen.
lowprise Rescue Dawn, in my opinion, is one of the best Vietnam survival movies. The acting by Christian Bale very good, the movie is filmed very well, excellent scenes that portray the jungle just like I remember, (my tour was in 1966/67). The air strikes by propeller aircraft were also very true to fact. Werner Herzog was very much involved in this movie, because this was the second film he directed about Dieter Dengler. The movie 'Little Dieter needs to fly' is the 1997 documentary by Werner Herzog, (Herzog was in the cast along with Dieter Dengler). This documentary should add more depth and understanding to the movie Rescue Dawn.
nlytnd_1 What a perplexingly weird movie. What makes it even weirder is, it's based on a real person and event. Typically if a movie is based around a real event, the movie goes for more of a realism type approach, but I'm not sure what the the movie was trying to achieve? Did they not want to depress the audience, so they decided to cover this story in a way that the audience wouldn't have to be emotionally impacted by it? Where to begin? When Dieter (Christian Bale) gets captured and brought to the leader (not sure the leaders title). His demeanor was that of a US teenager in Europe for spring break or at least the way movies like to portray American teens over seas. Cocky, like the world owes them something and just immature, whereas I can't imagine anyone in a situation where they were captured acting like that. It gets weirder as it goes into the various torture thing they do to Dieter... it's done in more of a comedic way, rather than upsetting. The fact that it's based on a real person makes me think that no, and someone completely dropped the ball and if I had to guess that someone was Christian Bale. As if he was incapable of playing this role and it came out in more of a dark comedic style. And they went a little over board with the insanity part of it. Then when is friend gets his head hacked off, it's not a sad moment and it isn't sad for Dieter either. Anyways, I give up trying to figure this movie out. It felt as though the movie was on anti depressants.... no emotion whatsoever in reference to things that should have been really upsetting.
SnoopyStyle It's 1965 and nobody thought much of Vietnam. Dieter Dengler (Christian Bale) is on his first mission to bomb the Ho Chi Minh trail in Laos. He crashes and is captured. He refuses to sign a confession for the Province Governor. He is tortured and sent to a sadistic prison camp in the middle of the jungle. The most sadistic of the guards is Little Hitler. There are prisoners from many places suffering many years. He organizes an escape plan with Duane Martin (Steve Zahn) but Gene DeBruin (Jeremy Davies) opposes the plan.Director Werner Herzog has made a shockingly realistic portrayal of the inhuman conditions. There is a realness to the jungle location and the locals. There are some reported inaccuracies of the real people being portrayed. The movie itself is a well-acted, compelling, awe-inspiring human drama. The acting from everybody is superb. Herzog is brilliant and the movie is impeccable.