Western Oregon Journal

Issue date: 2/8/08 Section: Culture

Any movie by Werner Herzog will demand the viewer's entire attention to fully comprehend the content of the movie. He has done many movies over the years that most mainstream audiences would not recognize. From Herakles in 1962, Herzog has been challenging movie-goers for over four decades. In his most recent feature film, Rescue Dawn, Herzog brings the story of a Vietnam Prisoner of War.

Rescue Dawn portrays the trials of downed fighter pilot Dieter Dengler, played by Christian Bale, in the initial stages of the Vietnam War. The film follows Dengler from the flight deck of the U.S.S Ranger to the jungles of Laos.

In making the movie Herzog put his actors through many rigors, both mental and physical. The actors were asked to lose weight and to eat worms and grubs. This was done to show some of the horrors Dengler and his fellow POW's faced. The conditions of the prison camp help erase the inaccurate visions of a Vietnamese POW we saw in Rambo: First Blood Part Two.

Herzog shows us the degeneration of the human mind in the face of the horrors of captivity.
Rescue Dawn is lovingly made and brings a story that is relatively unknown to the screen. Bale gives another masterful performance. The method actor has dazzled us in American Psycho, The Machinist and several other movies. Bale is able to transform into his on-screen persona and make us forget he has played multiple characters.

Steve Zahn plays Duane Martin, one of the POW's that befriends and escapes with Dengler. Zahn helps bring out the caring persona of Dengler as he accompanies Dengler after their escape. Herzog is able to capture the feelings of Dengler and his colleagues as they endure torture at the hands of their captors and the hope the men feel when they escape from the prison. Rescue Dawn is a movie that captures Dengler's spirit and enthusiasm for life in his journey from captivity to freedom.•

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