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Rating of
3/4
"Rescue Dawn" by Yojimbo
Yojimbo - wrote on 04/02/2012
Christian Bale stars in this true life story of Dieter Dengler, a German born American pilot who was shot down during a classified mission over Laos and was later interned at and escaped from a Vietcong prisoner of war camp. All the usual prisoner of war ingredients are here and once again Bale proves his willingness to suffer for his art, genuinely undergoing many of the harrowing ordeals Dengler went through, including water torture, eating maggots and wrestling with leeches and poisonous snakes. The documentary approach gives the film a genuine credibility but I also found it a little dry, as I didn't really feel any emotional attachment to the characters. It's certainly a well made and interesting film though, and Herzog skillfully side steps the usual flag waving histrionics that …
Rating of
3/4
Christian "Chameleon" Bale
Franz Patrick - wrote on 03/06/2008
I love the silent sequences of this film. It made it that much more real. I'm shocked at the fact that this is from the same director of "The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser." I abhor that film with a passion but I really like this one because it's much more focused. Christian Bale is a chameleon. One moment he's in despair, the next moment he seems like the happiest person alive. Due to his charisma, he successfully constructed a character that the audience can easily root for regardless of the kinds of obstacles he has to face. The scenery, may it be the prison or the jungle, is so alive all the time, it's actually recommended if one looks at the background once in a while. The only minor drawback I can muster is its two hours plus running time. A good fifteen to twenty minutes could've been …
Rating of
3/4
very well done
bigbro - wrote on 02/11/2008
outside of the quality of the movie, i was most impressed by how much weight bale was able to lose. he looked near death! and though its old hat now, i'm still always impressed by his american accent. I agree with alex, this is a very good movie. I especially liked all the jungle scenery.
one thing I didn't buy, however, was in the latter part of the movie when they're heading for the big muddy--supposedly they're still starving but they pass by banana or plantain tree clusters every 5 minutes. Believe me, after passing that many banana trees, they'd have found some ripe enough to eat raw or boil. I'd bet that in the real event, they didn't pass by that many banana trees--that was a scenery error.
the weakest part of the movie was then end; though he had hallucinations of …
Rating of
3.5/4
Very Good POW Movie
Alex - wrote on 12/11/2007
From the beginning of the year, I have anticipated seeing this movie. It was briefly in theaters (5 days in my area) and I never had a chance to watch it. It was praised by many critics and hailed as a great movie by some. Finally, I got a chance to see this very good movie.
Though not the best picture of the year, it does have some very real scenes. What I mean, is that I felt like I was in the POW camp. Christian Bale pushed himself into the "my favorite actor" spot on my profile (not because of this performance, but because of so many). Greg Zahn even did a decent job. I would definitely rank this in the top 10 though I am not a movie critic that sees 100's of movies a year.
There are two basic scenes in the film, that in the POW camp and that out in the real world. The …
