Little Dieter Needs to Fly Tagged Articles at Cinematical
TIFF Review: Rescue Dawn
Filed under: Drama », Independent », MGM », Theatrical Reviews », Festival Reports », Toronto International Film Festival », Cinematical Indie »
There's a shot late in Werner Herzog's Rescue Dawn that is on par with anything the master has ever produced. An emaciated, bewildered Christian Bale stands slightly to the right of center-screen. The top half of his torso is visible, and he's wearing a tattered flight suit, rendered grey by the dirt and grit of months of imprisonment. Behind Bale, almost filling the screen, is the Laotian jungle, an impenetrable curtain of giant leaves and dense shadow. Bale is slightly out of focus and the jungle behind him more-so; as we gaze upon it, the shot morphs from a recognizable image into a flood of colors and emotion -- there must be 20 different shades of green on display, and everything looks a little too bright to be real. It's a magical, breathtaking moment, and the kind of thing fans of Herzog have come to expect from his films. The problem is that there are no more like it in Rescue Dawn, a disappointingly by-the-numbers effort from a filmmaker of rare and true genius.
Rescue Dawn trailer
Filed under: Newsstand », Remakes and Sequels »
In 1997, Werner Herzog made Little Dieter Needs to Fly, a documentary about Dieter Dengler, an
airman who was shot down over Laos during the Viet Nam war. Dengler was held captive, tortured, and later escaped, and
the film tells his story by taking him back to the site of his experiences. The memory of Dengler clearly stuck with
Herzog, because he's now made Rescue
Dawn, a fiction version of the story that stars Christian
Bale. The film isn't due for release in the US until March (oddly, given Herzog's international stature, it's
only been picked up in the US), but Gibraltar Films released a short trailer this weekend - yep, it looks
grim. I'm a massive Herzog fan, but I'm try to temper my expectations for this one - though 2005 has been a great year for him because of the success of Grizzly Man and the two other highly praised documentaries that hit the US this year, his recent fiction films have just not been very good. Hopefully Rescue Dawn will be a turning point rather than just another disappointment.
[via AICN]
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