Rescue Dawn (2006)

                        “Rescue Dawn” is the true story of Lt. Dieter Dengler, who was held prisoner in a Laotian prison camp until he escaped.  The film was written and directed by Werner Herzog (“Aguirre, the Wrath of God”).  It was his debut as a director of feature films.  Herzog adapted his screenplay from his documentary about Dengler entitled “Little Dieter Needs to Fly” (1997).  The documentary included extensive interviews with Dengler.  The movie is in the subgenre of survival films like “Hell in the Pacific” and “The Way Back”.  It was filmed in Thailand.

                        In February, 1965, Lt. Dengler (Christian Bale) was involved in bombing missions over Laos.  He flew off the aircraft carrier USS  Ranger in the Gulf of Tonkin.  Before his first mission, the pilots watch a jungle survival film and joke around.  Foreshadowing.  On that very first mission, Dengler’s A-1 Skyraider rolls in on the Ho Chi Minh Trail, is hit, and crashes in a rice paddy.  The CGI for this scene is poor, but the movie is not going to rely on effects.  He is quickly captured by the Pathet Lao.  Herzog does not use subtitles, so we are as confused as Dengler is.  He is interrogated by the usual English-speaking, suave enemy officer.  He is tortured and eventually taken to a camp. The camp holds only a few prisoners, two of them are Americans – Sgt. Gene DeBruin (Jeremy Davies) and Lt. Duane Martin (Steve Zahn).  Dengler immediately takes charge of the prisoners who all sleep in the same barracks with their feet in stocks.  Life in the camp is more gross than graphic.  Dengler hatches an escape plan which Debruin opposes because he feels they all will be killed.  The plan involves surprising the guards and getting their weapons.  Then all they’ll need to do is survive the jungle to reach friendly forces.

                        “Rescue Dawn” is the best Vietnam War POW movie.  Granted, the competition is weak.  Most of the movies are exploitation flicks like “Rambo II”, “Uncommon Valor”, and the “Missing in Action” series.  “Hanoi Hilton” is the closest equivalent, since it is also a true story.  (Actually, the closest movie to it is the WWII drama “The Way Back”.)  “Rescue Dawn” merges the action of the escape/rescue films with the prison life of “Hanoi Hilton”.  The prison scenes accurately reflect the fact that Dengler and his mates were being held in conditions far from those of the Hanoi Hilton.  The movie is not a tutorial on Vietnam War prison camps.  And the escape accurately reflects the fact that this is not Stalag Luft III from “The Great Escape”.  The decision by Herzog to forego “enhancement” of the narrative probably explains the disappointing box office. 

                        Herzog deserves a lot of credit for adapting his documentary into a movie that would bring Dengler’s amazing tale to a broader audience.  He did well with the casting.  The acting is excellent, especially from Bale, Davies, and Zahn.  They committed totally to their roles (those are real worms Bale is eating) in what must have been a difficult shoot in the tropical Thailand climate.  No trailers were provided for the actors.  All the main actors lost weight for their roles (Bale lost 55 pounds) and in a show of solidarity, Herzog lost 30 pounds.  The film was shot in reverse chronology so they could gain back their weight during the shoot.  All three leads could have been nominated for their performances.  In many ways it is an ensemble effort as the other prisoners have their moments and the group interaction is entertaining.  There is naturally some dysfunction.

                          The decision to film in Thailand was great for verisimilitude.  It is a lush, but menacing setting.  The cinematography works well with the setting.  The camp is accurately depicted as low-rent and the guards are hardly the malevolent psychopaths we are used to seeing.  They have interesting personalities, as do the prisoners.  In fact, they are just as messed up as the prisoners.  Herzog sacrifices POW tropes for realism.  The movie is refreshingly free of clichés and implausibilities.  For instance, the escape is sloppy.  The violence is sudden, vicious, and thus, realistic.  Herzog also was not interested in taking a position on the war or being overly patriotic.  Dengler and the other prisoners do not debate whether it was all worthwhile. 

                        The plot is divided into four acts.  The opening and closing are the weakest.  The sections in the camp and the trek of Dengler and Martin are powerful.  This is mainly due to the acting.  Unfortunately, this results in the biggest problem with the movie.  When you hire Jeremy Davies, you get Jeremy Davies.  DeBruin is an excellent foil for the optimistic Dengler.  He is played as an unstable fly in the ointment.  But the truth is the real DeBruin was maligned by the film.  (See my Historical Accuracy section below)  His family was severely critical of the final product and justifiably so.  Herzog has subsequently admitted he should have known better.  He should have created a fictional character.  

                        Overall, although not perfect, “Rescue Dawn” is one of the better Vietnam War movies.  It tells a remarkable story with a commendable amount of accuracy (aside from the DeBruin portrayal).  Keep that in mind if you see it, because you are not going to get “John McCain Meets Rambo”.  It does have a lot of suspense, but it is not a pulse-pounding movie.  It is best viewed as a survival movie.

GRADE = B

HISTORICAL ACCURACY:   Dengler entered the Air Force simply because he wanted to fly.  The Air Force would not let him, so he ended up in the Navy.  Although the movie depicts the pilots not taking the survival film seriously, Dengler had actually excelled at survival school.  He was the only one to gain weight as his poor upbringing had trained him to eat almost anything.  The movie does an excellent job showing this ability.  The flight was his first mission.  The crash is basically as it happened.  He was capture while crossing a clearing, not while drinking from a stream.  He was staked to the ground at night and marched during the day.  The movie does not show him escaping when his guards fell asleep.  He climbed to the top of a hill and tried to use a mirror to signal planes, but none appeared.  After several days, he came down to get some water and was recaptured.  The ant piles and water torture did occur.  The torture was more varied and worse than the movie showed.  He did refuse to sign a document condemning America.

 

                        He spent some time in a Pathet Lao camp before being transferred to the camp of the movie.  DeBruin and Martin had been in captivity for over two years.  DeBruin is very different than the character in the movie.  He taught the others English and shared his food.  He was the main author of the plan.  He used the nail to free their feet before Dengler even arrived.  It was also his idea to save their rice in the tubes.  The way the movie handles the rice situation is almost exactly the opposite of the real DeBruin!  It could be argued that the movie character assassinates DeBruin.  You cannot blame Dengler for this as he had nothing but positive things to say about DeBruin and if he had lived (he passed in 2001), he probably would have been upset with the movie.

                        The sleeping arrangement was accurately depicted.  They did supplement their food with snakes and rats.  The movie refers to the dysentery problem, but downplays it.  The plan was essentially the same, but it had been concocted before Dengler arrived.  Dengler took charge because he was in the best shape and was the most determined to escape. They did initiate the plan after overhearing that they were going to be liquidated.  The escape was close to the actual escape.  Dengler killed five as they approached him and Phisat Indradat shot another.  Two of the guards got away.  Seven prisoners escaped.  They broke into three groups with Dengler and Martin pairing up.  DeBruin apparently stayed with a prisoner who was ill.  It is unclear what happened to him.

                        The Dengler/Martin trek is accurately depicted in the movie.  They did build a raft to float to what they hoped would be the Mekong River.  They did have trouble with some rapids.  They did have a single sole that they shared.  The leaches were real.  They did manage to build a fire, but it was to signal a C-130, not a helicopter.  (After all, what would a helicopter be doing over Laos.)  The helicopter attack was a rare moment of enhancement by Herzog.  Martin’s death is pretty much how it happened.  They were trying to steal food from a village when a boy alerted the villagers.  A villager slashed Martin in the leg and then he was beheaded. Dengler escaped and went back to the abandoned village which he set afire to successfully signal a C-130, but the fire was not recognized as a plea for help.   Later after 23 days, Dengler was able to use a parachute to signal an Air Force Skyraider and got himself rescued by a helicopter.  He was taken to a hospital in Da Nang.  It was Navy SEALs who liberated him in a gurney because the Navy did not want the Air Force debriefing him.  He was greeted warmly back on the Ranger.