A paradox

In this most mainstream film to date Werner Herzog dramatizes the escape and rescue in Southeast Asia of Dieter Dengler, whose life he reviewed more thoroughly, and probably more memorably, ten years ago in the documentary, Little Dieter Wants to Fly. Unlike most of Herzog's work, this is not a movie nobody else could have made, because it follows a conventional adventure format. But still maybe nobody could have done it quite the way Herzog did. He has created a paradox. Working in a genre that's usually uplifting, he's held back from offering the uplift. To do that is uniquely Herzogian, even if the result isn't one of his finest films.

What sets Rescue Dawn apart further is the authenticity and detail of its setting and the rough experience the cast and crew went through to make it. It's also true that Herzog has famously dealt with men's struggles in the jungle realistically enacted by cast and crews in Aguirre, the Wrath of God and Fitzcaraldo, and he took Dieter to Thailand to relive his experience for Little Dieter. Herzog tied Dengler's hands together and in Dieter's words, "There were Thais following me with rifles. I said, 'Jesus, Werner, this is too close for comfort! I really don't like this.' And Werner would say 'That's exactly what I want you to say!'" (Given in an Indiewire archive interview.) Maybe Christian Bale, a game and athletic actor who lost 63 pounds for the film The Machinist (but not a handful to deal with like the legendary Klaus Kinski) said something similar. In Rescue Dawn, Bale as Dieter appears to eat live worms at one point; struggles with a wildly writhing six-foot snake and strips it with his teeth. And the jungle locations in which this film were shot were no picnic. The landscape, as always in Herzog, is intense and ever-present.

The film cuts quickly to the chase. Dieter, who we later learn was born in Germany and fell in love with flying when he saw the face of an American bomber pilot grazing near his window, has come to America and joined the Navy to fly and the Navy has sent him out to Southeast Asia. On his first mission he's shot down in his little plane and captured by Laotians who torture him, try to get him to sign a denunciation of his adopted America, torture him some more, and put him in a remote prison camp with a few Asian and American prisoners. The Americans are helicopter pilot Lt. Duane Martin (Steve Zahn) and Eugene DeBruin (Jeremy Davies), a semi-coherent, starved civilian from the CIA-run Air America, who rigidly opposes Dieter's plans to escape. Bale loses a lot of weight again for this adventure, but nothing like the emaciated Davies. The usually comic Zahn is appealing and real as Dieter's failing partner. Dieter must wait months to try an escape because the other prisoners, who've been there for upwards of two years, know survival in the jungle will be not be possible until the rainy season comes to provide a water supply. The prisoners talk in loud whispers, even after they escape, and perhaps partly because Herzog is unused to directing an English language film, the dialogue sometimes becomes hard to follow.

Rescue Dawn's greatest weakness is its greatest strength. Herzog follows Dieter Dengler's story closely, organizing the film to tell it, rather than striving for emotional effects. The result is stripped down, authentic, and appallingly gritty—but not as suspenseful as some other prisoner-of-war classics. A couple of the most shocking events go by so fast you hardly have time to absorb them. Christian Bale is fine in the lead, conveying his character's real life determination and upbeat spirit but also his wile. His raging grin is Dieter-esque. However, he might have looked a bit more haggard toward the end given all his character's been through: look at a real photo of Dengler at that stage. But the jungle struggle is marvelously, spectacularly, repellently vivid. The emotional heart of the film is the relationship between Dieter and Duane.

At the end the traditional uplift is replaced by the simple joy of being rescued—and a hedonistic platitude. When Dieter gets back to a cheering crowd of civilians and military, he's asked for a message and all he has to say is "Fill what's empty, empty what's full, and scratch where it itches"—words attributed to the Duchess of Windsor. And no doubt that's what Dieter Dengler really did say to that crowd at that moment. But in this section Herzog's out of the jungle and out of his element, and however accurate this is, it feels more stagy.

Nonetheless this is a pared-down and effective story. It's no betrayal by Herzog. He's dealing with one of his special people, even if conventionally. It's just not as interesting a film as Grizzy Man or Herzog's famous earlier masterpieces.

_________________
©Chris Knipp. Blog: http://chrisknipp.blogspot.com/.