Rescue Dawn Review

Herzog had already told this story once, in the documentary Little Dieter Needs to Fly, and the restaging loses some of the strangeness that made the first version sing. What it gains is bodies. Christian Bale and Steve Zahn look genuinely wrecked by the time the prison camp is done with them, and Zahn is the surprise, playing Duane as a gentle man whose hope has gone soft from overuse. Jeremy Davies is all twitch and bone as Gene DeBruin. Peter Zeitlinger shoots the Thai jungle as something beautiful and completely indifferent, which is the correct position for this director, and the early shootdown is handled with a plainness that makes it frightening.

The escape is where the film slides toward convention. Once the men are loose in the trees the beats become standard survival picture beats, and the closing return to the carrier, with cheering sailors hoisting Dieter onto their shoulders, is the most obedient ending Herzog has ever filmed. The DeBruin family's complaint about the writing of Gene has merit too. Bale plays Dengler's relentless cheer as a tactic for staying alive rather than as a virtue.