Rescue Dawn (2007)

The Worst Film Ever

Absolutely Fantastic

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

When I settled in to watch "Rescue Dawn", I was ready for a terse, taut treatise on being captured behind enemy lines during the Vietnam War. What I got instead was a ham-acted, goofy-themed war flick that I struggled to get through.For a basic plot summary, "Rescue Dawn" tells the real-life story of pilot Dieter Dengler (Christian Bale) being shot down and captured at the very beginning of the Vietnam War.The most glaring problem with this film is that the tone is completely wrong for a war flick (based on a true story or not). Dengler is never without a goofy smile on his face, he doesn't seem to respond to emotional situations, and towards the end he seems to forget everything he had previously experienced. Thus, there is a total lack of drama throughout the production. I even found some of the scenes bordering on offensive considering their portrayal of the U.S. Military.It doesn't help that the usually-incredible Christian Bale is given such a barren role/script to work with. One could easily say this is his "worst role ever", but I think it's only because the whole shebang is a mess and never really gets into any meaty drama or emotional material that actually requires acting.Overall, I believe that director Werner Herzog really screwed this one up. It is (up to this point) the worst "war film" I have ever seen.

German director Werner Herzog is well known for his jungle-set pictures as well as his documentaries, and the look of this film is heavily inspired by both. It has a gritty, realistic edge to it that ties in with the fact that it's based on a true story, and Herzog's a guy striving for realism throughout. At the end of the day, RESCUE DAWN is simply another Vietnam P.O.W. flick, but that's fine as Hollywood hasn't made one in a while. This film has a taut and compelling narrative and benefits hugely from some excellent performances, especially from the central duo of Christian Bale and Steve Zahn. Bale, who loses weight again for the role after his turn in THE MACHINIST, is typically excellent, but it's Zahn who comes as the biggest surprise. This is a guy typically typecast in comedies but he gives a great dramatic turn here.The story is pretty predictable and infused with a level of grittiness that incorporates torture, hardships, deprivation, and killing. It comes as no surprise that the second half is an escape picture, with our heroes tackling everything the jungle throws at them in their bid for survival. Not since Ruggero Deodato's gruelling cannibal epics circa 1980 has a film made us feel the sweaty confines of the jungle so much. A truly heartwarming ending lifts our spirits a little, but in the end this is a roller-coaster ride of emotion and another example of the triumph of the human spirit. Great stuff.

So I watched it cause it was a sole survivor movie someone recommend it to me, so I said why not just give a try the rating looks compelling but it isn't the movie falls into the list of movies which we called OVERRATED the acting was terrible at least in the first half, Christian Bale is behaving like a brat child like he was in a bad hotel and everything there is terrible.The only thing I liked in this film is the acting of the co-actors which was good than Bales and the location too the forest the empty fields it was shot great but I won't recommend this movie to anyone unless you are a die hard Christian Bale's fan.

This movie was based on the true story of a US Navy fighter pilots struggle for survival after being shot down and captured during a mission over Laos during the Vietnam war. And considering the source material this should have been an excellent movie. Somehow though it seemed a bit cheesy at times and wound up feeling more like an episode of Locked Up Abroad, with the bad re-enactments.Steve Zahn does a great job as a fellow POW as does Jeremy Davies but Christian Bale is terrible, with the best part of his acting job being the weight loss. I also found the sound of his voice annoying particularly when he's yelling, weird I know. The ending is also too much, with the kidnapping back to the ship (Rescue Dawn) and all the rah, rah once aboard, like he's a rock star or something. So bad, I can't believe this part really happened. In all honestly I never got the feel of the 60's here either, maybe the 80's. Disappointing as a whole. 7/5/14