Rescue Dawn, a review
Hardly ever do I refuse an invitation to a war movie. It's one of my favourite genres, provided that the war in question is not just a excuse for big guys with bigger guns causing even bigger explosions.
Rescue Dawn though directed by Herzog, and with Bale playing the main character, failed short of my expectations. Maybe I shouldn't have expected that much?
The premise, although quite simple, immediately fascinated me: during Vietnam war a young pilot is shot down, captured, tortured, imprisoned and subsequently he prepares and executes a successful escape. Add to this that the story is based on a real man's experiences: Dieter Dengler in fact served in US Air Force in mid-sixties, got shot down and barely survived his escape from Laotian war camp. “Wheee!”, I thought. “Heroic handsome men in dreary predicaments!”
The first part of the film lived up to my expectations. In an intense, fast-paced sequence we learn of the flight, crash and capture of our hapless hero. The following scenes in a POW camp are the movie's best part. We also get to know him, not by a lengthy exposition, but through his behaviour. Dieter is not much a soldier; it's as if he didn't have enough aggression for that. As he says, all he ever wanted was to fly. We get a slightly disturbing portrait of a grinning, seemingly naïve, hypomanic nut. He comes off as a strange, but endearing mix of an overactive enthusiastic kid and a DIY McGyver, who, only just imprisoned, starts planning an escape. Actually, the claustrophobic, cuckoo's nest mood of the camp causes all the prisoners to go insane. Insanity, it seems, serves as the best defence mechanism for Dieter's fellow prisoners. Their whispered, grotesque conversations; disturbing quirks and mannerisms; weird rules - all this makes sense, as much as Dieter's manic planning. This was - for me - the best part of the story, satisfying and riveting.
Unfortunately the subsequent escape, the ordeal in jungle and Dieter's triumphant rescue lacked somewhat, despite their intensity. I strongly need a proper structure in a story: it must be well balanced, in plot and emotions alike; it should convey some meaning, show a change or a process. Sadly, our hero is practically impermeable. The only changes we see in him are physical ones; at the end he's exactly the same person he was in the beginning, only more bruised.
There was a point in the movie, where it could drift in a direction of a psychological drama, a study of insanity, or at least a friendship story (the tenderness and the care I've seen there just begged for a sad, sweet slash spin-off. Erm, sorry.) I'd have gladly seen it. The scene where our half-conscious protagonist offers his friend a sole was unbelievably thrilling and promised a deeper story afterwards. Yes, I hoped for such a continuation.
What I certainly didn't hope for, was the unbearably pompous and cliché ending. Everything the film managed to convey so far, blurred in the overblown pomposity. It seemed to me that in the middle of the shooting the director got scared where the consistency might lead him, and decided to copy-paste a typical happy end for a stereotypical bad war movie. Frankly, the only thing it lacked to be an ultimate cheesy patriotic happy end was the star-spangled banner. I'm deeply grateful that poor Dieter didn't have a cape made of it. It was entirely probable.
Don't get me wrong, I don't think that Rescue Dawn is a bad picture. If the last ten minutes had been cut off, the movie would be really good. Had the last 40 minutes been somewhat modified, it would have been a brilliant, heavy film. As I said - I have only my too high expectations to blame. Pity, isn't it?
Rescue Dawn though directed by Herzog, and with Bale playing the main character, failed short of my expectations. Maybe I shouldn't have expected that much?
The premise, although quite simple, immediately fascinated me: during Vietnam war a young pilot is shot down, captured, tortured, imprisoned and subsequently he prepares and executes a successful escape. Add to this that the story is based on a real man's experiences: Dieter Dengler in fact served in US Air Force in mid-sixties, got shot down and barely survived his escape from Laotian war camp. “Wheee!”, I thought. “Heroic handsome men in dreary predicaments!”
The first part of the film lived up to my expectations. In an intense, fast-paced sequence we learn of the flight, crash and capture of our hapless hero. The following scenes in a POW camp are the movie's best part. We also get to know him, not by a lengthy exposition, but through his behaviour. Dieter is not much a soldier; it's as if he didn't have enough aggression for that. As he says, all he ever wanted was to fly. We get a slightly disturbing portrait of a grinning, seemingly naïve, hypomanic nut. He comes off as a strange, but endearing mix of an overactive enthusiastic kid and a DIY McGyver, who, only just imprisoned, starts planning an escape. Actually, the claustrophobic, cuckoo's nest mood of the camp causes all the prisoners to go insane. Insanity, it seems, serves as the best defence mechanism for Dieter's fellow prisoners. Their whispered, grotesque conversations; disturbing quirks and mannerisms; weird rules - all this makes sense, as much as Dieter's manic planning. This was - for me - the best part of the story, satisfying and riveting.
Unfortunately the subsequent escape, the ordeal in jungle and Dieter's triumphant rescue lacked somewhat, despite their intensity. I strongly need a proper structure in a story: it must be well balanced, in plot and emotions alike; it should convey some meaning, show a change or a process. Sadly, our hero is practically impermeable. The only changes we see in him are physical ones; at the end he's exactly the same person he was in the beginning, only more bruised.
There was a point in the movie, where it could drift in a direction of a psychological drama, a study of insanity, or at least a friendship story (the tenderness and the care I've seen there just begged for a sad, sweet slash spin-off. Erm, sorry.) I'd have gladly seen it. The scene where our half-conscious protagonist offers his friend a sole was unbelievably thrilling and promised a deeper story afterwards. Yes, I hoped for such a continuation.
What I certainly didn't hope for, was the unbearably pompous and cliché ending. Everything the film managed to convey so far, blurred in the overblown pomposity. It seemed to me that in the middle of the shooting the director got scared where the consistency might lead him, and decided to copy-paste a typical happy end for a stereotypical bad war movie. Frankly, the only thing it lacked to be an ultimate cheesy patriotic happy end was the star-spangled banner. I'm deeply grateful that poor Dieter didn't have a cape made of it. It was entirely probable.
Don't get me wrong, I don't think that Rescue Dawn is a bad picture. If the last ten minutes had been cut off, the movie would be really good. Had the last 40 minutes been somewhat modified, it would have been a brilliant, heavy film. As I said - I have only my too high expectations to blame. Pity, isn't it?