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| Movie Review: Rescue Dawn Alternate Title: MacGyver Meets The Great Escape
Story: Director and writer Werner
Herzog takes his 1997 documentary Little Deiter Needs to
Fly and turns it into a quasi fictionalized account of Deiter
Dengler's (1938 - 2001) five month capture and brave escape
from Laos in 1966 after his Navy plane got shot down. Dengler's real life story is fascinating. He
was born in Germany, became an American citizen at 18 and wore the red,
white and blue on his person each and every day. So why was I not impressed
by this film? Because it is a typical rendering of the hero gets shot
down, never loses hope, fights the odds and escapes to freedom. There
was not one surprise and by the film's end I had more questions than
answers. That said, if you like formulaic escape films
and still can't get enough of the Vietnam debacle than go see it for
the scenery (Thailand), the torture and the emaciated actors. Acting: Christian Bale is consistently good in his
many roles. He is a champion at weight loss and has that obsessed look
patented. Steve Zahn, who normally plays the doofus
buddy in a bad movie, gets to act a bit in this film and comes in second
as the actor who lost the most weight for the role. Jeremy Davies,
who looks exactly like he did when he portrayed Charles Manson
on TV, wins the 'I lost he most weight
for the film' award. Predilection: None
Critters: A sweet dog (who does not get hurt), worms
and a snake (see food below).
Food: Rice, worms and that snake.
Blatant Product Placement: War is hell.
Soundtrack: Bloviated
Opening Titles: An overview of our bombing of Laos
in 1966. Effective but appropriated from other films.
Theater Audience: Pretty crowded for a hot Sunday
first showing.
Weather: Hot and rainy.
Sappy Factor: The ending was over the top.
Quirky Meter: 0
Squirm Scale: Torture is brutal to watch.
Drift Factor: I started to look at my watch after
only 35 minutes.
Predictability Level: High
Tissue Usage: 0
Oscar Worthy: No
Soap Box: The debacle we called Vietnam is still
a contentious issue. Ont he way home from the theater I saw a woman
wearing a t-shirt that said "Iraq is Arabic for Vietnam".
Nit Picking: There were too many characters that
were not resolved.
Big Screen or Rental: Unless this type of war, capture
and escape film is for you I say rental is good enough. For other and
better Christian Bale films, try renting: Batman Begins, American
Psycho, Velvet Goldmine, Swing Kids, Newsies and the most wonderful
Empire of the Sun
Length: A bit over two hours.
LOBO HOWLS: 5
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