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All Movie Info
Starring:
Christian Bale, Marshall Bell, François Chau, Jeremy Davies, Craig Gellis, GQ, Zach Grenier, Pat Healy, Toby Huss, Evan Jones, Steve Zahn, Abhijati 'Meuk' Jusakul, Teerawat Mulvilai, Brad Carr, David Kiiskinen, Chris Butler, Bonnie Z. Hutchinson, Mr. Tony B. King, Mr. Richard Manning, Mr. Garrett D. Melich, Mr. Kriangsak Ming-olo, Somkuan 'Kuan' Siroon, Chris Butler, Eric Callero, Mr. Yuttana Muenwaja, Mr. Chorn Solyda, Mr. Saichia Wongwiroj
Directed By:
Werner Herzog
Written By:
Werner Herzog
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Rescue Dawn (2007)
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Are you a smart soldier?
This is another "based on real events" movie so I wonder how much of it is true to life. There are points in this movie that the main character kept it together a little too well in my opinion. I understand the whole "Kill or be killed/sink or swim/fight of flight" mentality that would take over in real life that the movie industry never seems to convey accurately, but over portraying it can be bad as well. In any event this was great to see a war movie where there main actors played the roles of captives outside of the norm.
Dieter Dengler was born in Germany and dreamed of being a pilot. He made his way to America and enlisted in the Navy so he could live out his dream. Unfortunately he enlisted during the Vietnam War and, during a secret ops mission was shot down over Laos. He was taken hostage and held prisoner along with soldiers Duane Martin and Gene DeBruin. They must work together to escape.
This is a good depiction of how bad things got for soldiers being held captive. Some soldiers were forced to sign declaration documents, denying their allegiance to the USA. Some were even convinced that doing so would lead to their release. Most would rather just die escaping than live in captivity any longer than needed.
Christian Bale (BATMAN: DARK KNIGHT) as Dieter Dengler was great as always. This was more proof that the guy has the toughness to be Batman. I wonder if he did this movie while, before or right after the Machinist because at the beginning of this movie he was around 185-195 lbs. and by the end he had to be about 130 lbs. Steve Zahn (BANDIDAS) Duane Martin is usually pretty good in anything he is in (which is usually the flaky stoner type character like the ones he played in Saving Silverman and That Thing You Do.) He actually broke free from that persona and impressed me with his intensity. Jeremy Davies (MADERLAY) as Gene DeBruin was the consummate coward. He was great as the guy so concerned of his own safety that he actually believes he might by released by the captors. It was great to see Toby Huss (CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM) as Spook in this movie. I will always remember him doing his Frank Sinatra impression in those little MTV promos.
I am not a huge war story movie, but this was more than just that. I like how there was a lot of though going on by the characters in the survival scenes. They weren't simply running away foolishly. This was pretty good and another great showing by Bale and Zahn.
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 | Tim
Nov 25, 2007 2:21 AM
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See I thought that this film poorly portrayed how bad things got, because they barely scratched the surface of torture and hunger. Also I dont know how true that was to let prisoners wonder the camp during the day with no shackles or restraints.
I liked the film but I thought that it needed an R rating to correctly show how it was. |
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Nov 25, 2007 12:52 PM