Ahoy, squirts! Quint here to introduce our very own Copernicus and his buddy SharkShark. I don't like sharks... I've had some problems with them in the past, but Copernicus vouches for this one. They've both seen Werner Herzog's RESCUE DAWN, which is still rolling out in limited release all over the country. I haven't seen it myself yet, but I know many people who have and they really dig it. Just for Christian Bale's sure to be amazing performance I'll give it a look. Here is the genius astronomer and his SharkShark buddy to tell you more! Enjoy!
Review by Copernicus: RESCUE DAWN is Werner Herzog's accomplished and gritty retelling of the story of Dieter Dengler, the German-American fighter pilot shot down over Laos and held in a prison camp during the Vietnam war. Herzog is a rare director, equally at home in the documentary and feature film world, but this is the first time he's created a feature out of the story told in one of his docs, LITTLE DIETER NEEDS TO FLY. The story itself is compelling enough to merit a second life as a feature, but painfully realistic performances by Christian Bale as Dengler, and Steve Zahn and Jeremy Davies as fellow prisoners Duane and Gene, are what lift this above the average fare in the escape-movie genre. Herzog's skills as a documentarian show. So often, when Hollywood condenses and amplifies a story, the first victim is believability. Here, Herzog doesn't try (much) to shoehorn the complexities of reality into a tried and true template, or put a soft edge on the suffering of his characters. By shooting most scenes in one or two takes, forcing his actors to sacrifice creature comforts on the set, and asking them to shoot sometimes dangerous scenes with a minimum of safety measures, he was called crazy by many, but the result is an uncommonly realistic film, something rarely produced through the mainstream process. It helps, of course, that the star is captain intensity himself, Christian Bale. Whether he is playing a hero or psychopath, Bale commits physically and psychologically to every role. Here he trades his superhero physique for that of a gaunt captive subsisting on a handful of rice a day. In this age of Fear Factor, maybe anyone can eat a live grub on screen, but nobody can sell it like Christian Bale. You are rooting for him to eat writhing insect larvae, because you really do fear for his health if he doesn't get that protein. Challenging Bale on the caloric restriction front is a skeletal Jeremy Davies. Looking as Charles Masonish as ever, and almost as deranged, his character, Gene, represents what Dieter will surely become if he does not risk escape – less man than corpse, ground down to a state of semi-brainwashed, laconic lethargy. Even if we've seen bits of this in previous Davies performances it does not take away from his mastery of the role. But the real scene-stealer is Steve Zahn as Duane. We are used to seeing him as the spaced-out funnyman, and while he does provide the few moments of levity, overall his performance is deadly serious and emotionally affecting. Zahn is arguably the best sidekick actor working today, but this performance could easily land him a best supporting actor nomination. It is easy to imagine RESCUE DAWN as a commentary on the current state of American politics. Mired in its own Vietnam, this administration was just as naive as Dieter going in – thinking they would be in and out of the war in a few weeks, overly confident, and too reliant on technology. And one can't help but imagine that any prisoner-of-war movie set today would have the roles reversed, with Americans as the sadistic captors. While this may be the unavoidable subtext of any modern Vietnam POW film, Herzog does not go out of his way to amplify these themes. The fact that he initially told this story in a different form 10 years ago suggests he is more drawn to its timeless aspects -- the nearly infinite capacity of people for both cruelty and forbearance, and the comparative insignificance of humans next to the awesome power of nature. Despite all of its redeeming qualities, RESCUE DAWN isn't perfect. While elements of gut-wrenching verisimilitude keep it grounded, it isn't hard to predict what's going to happen. And the claustrophobic accommodations, constant focus on the same characters, and near-continuous peril can induce something like combat fatigue in the viewer. It may be too mainstream for the art house, yet not conventional enough for the masses. Still, it is a good story told well by a master director, and it demands to be seen if for no other reason than the performances. RESCUE DAWN opens in limited release July 4th in what could be a clever bit of counter-programming a serious adult drama against a giant robot extravaganza. Here's hoping that the confidence of the studio to release such a serious picture during the blockbuster season pays off and it finds its audience. Review by sharkshark: We've seen it before -- the bamboo cages, the teeming jungle, sweaty guards and ill-fed prisoners. One half expects a game of Russian roulette, or a bag held tight over a guy's head with a rat inside. It's all been done before, in countless films, from DEER HUNTER to RAMBO, this story of Vietnam POWs overcoming the odds and finding some form of redemption. What's unique about RESCUE DAWN, a fact that ironically burdens the film with a greater sense of incredulity than the most jingoistic action romp, is that it's a true story. In remaking the tale told in 1997's documentary LITTLE DIETER NEEDS TO FLY, Herzog does a wonderful thing -- he wastes no time in getting to the heart of the story. Just minutes into the running time we are already where we're expecting to be, thrust inside those cages, witnessing the snarling guards and feeling the sticky heat of the jungle. There is no hour long buildup to get us in the mood of entrapment. Instead, with almost brutal suddenness, the film is setup, launched, and crashed into the central themes of the plot. The film is a study in the unique insanity brought about through imprisonment, malnutrition and hopelessness. Once we are with Dieter and friends in the prison camp, the pace of the film dramatically shifts down in gear, as the plots for escape develop, alliances are drawn, and the complicated relationship between prisoner and guard is expanded upon. Slowly, each cliché of the genre is eroded, and the inevitable escape seems, weirdly, almost bitter-sweet, release without catharsis, often more excruciating than the imprisonment itself. The trials of being on the run in the unforgiving jungle is what sets this film apart, and the brutal interchanges between the characters throughout the latter phase of the film elevate RESCUE DAWN to something quite wonderful. The film's greatest special effect is, of course, star Christian Bale. Like his role in the overlooked Machinist, his physical transformation into Dieter is simply breathtaking to witness. His wide-eyed intensity and drive to survive at any cost reeks of verisimilitude, and it's a performance worthy of more recognition than it is likely to accrue. The other prisoners, and even the guards, never seem two dimensional, and they appear to have real histories that, if not fully developed in this film, nonetheless inform their decisions throughout. Of particular note is Steve Zahn's character Duane, played with emaciated frame and sickly wit. His sense of doom provides excellent counterpoint to the seemingly improbable self reliance of Dieter. While Duane holds on to the idea of the cavalry swooping in to rescue, Dieter sense of survival drives the story ever forward, almost blindly, almost to a fault. It is this dynamic that drives the central portion of the film, and in lesser hands it could have descended into a banal morality play, providing overt metaphor for notions of courage and fear. With Herzog's deft direction, it provides the basis for a tense, compelling, accessible action film. In the end, this is what is all the more remarkable about RESCUE DAWN. With all its pretenses, its poetry and its polemical elements, this is a straight-ahead, enjoyable to watch war flick. There are no long, boring tracking shots providing gratuitous context or sense of wonder, no tedious monologues about the nature of good and evil. There is simply the close up, taut view of a unique form of crazy required to survive in the face of utter, complete, and a fully rational sense of despair. It's as if Delta Force somehow inherited European art-house sensibilities, but in a good way. This may not be the definitive Vietnam or POW escape film, but RESCUE DAWN deserves to be seen and celebrated. It is a unique telling of this well-tread tale, told with enough smarts, suspense and brutal moments of unique action sequences that it warrants a wide audience.
