The Fourth of July is the second-best day of the year to release Rescue Dawn (MGM). Memorial Day would be the most appropriate, since this stirring movie pays tribute to the valor of rank-and-file military personnel by relating the real-life ordeal of one serviceman.
Christian Bale portrays German-born Dieter Dengler, a U.S. Navy pilot shot down over Laos in 1966 and taken prisoner by Pathet Lao soldiers, allies of the communist North Vietnamese.
Dengler came to America after World War II and joined the Navy to fulfill his dream of becoming a pilot. German writer-director Werner Herzog grew close to Dengler and profiled him in the 1998 documentary Little Dieter Needs to Fly. Herzog, whose credits include Fitzcarraldo and Grizzly Man, gravitates toward material in which people face extreme physical and psychological conditions.
This story certainly fits the bill. Dengler was shot down during a classified mission over Laos. After crash-landing, he eluded capture for a time before being marched to a remote jungle prison camp containing two other Americans, Duane (Steve Zahn) and Gene (Jeremy Davies), and three Vietnamese. Guarded by a ragtag band of Laotians, Dengler was determined to escape.
Uninterested in scoring political or ideological points, Herzog chronicles his grueling experience without false sentimentality or hyperbole of any kind; and yet the saga proves emotional and uplifting. He sees Dengler as a 19th-century romantic hero, a man of action and conscience pitted against nature and his own limitations more than other human beings, whether his Laotian jailers or fellow prisoners. The resourceful aviator is held up as a beacon of courage and compassion.
Rescue Dawn also has a vivid lyricism courtesy of Klaus Badelt's music and Peter Zeitlinger's cinematography, which beautifully frames events against the lush and forbidding terrain of Southeast Asia. The action itself unspools in linear, realistic fashion, with no reference points beyond what we see Dengler experiencing, all of which gives the film an artful impressionistic quality.
Without sacrificing intensity, the scenes in which Dengler is under physical and mental duress are tastefully presented. Because they are integral to the story and not overblown, and since Dengler is such a positive model, Rescue Dawn is suitable for mature adolescents.
The film contains powerful but nongraphic scenes of violence and torture, some crude language and profanity, some locker-room-style banter and scatological references appropriate to the context. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is A-II — adults and adolescents. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG-13 — parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.
