For a while, dropping Werner Herzog’s name was a snooty
cinephile’s badge of honor: “Have you seen his midget movie? The one
where they go all crazy?” (That’d be 1970’s Even Dwarfs Started
Small, and the correct response—regardless of its veracity—is “Yes,
of course. Excellent!”) “Or that insane one? About the crazy
dude in the rainforest?” (Aguirre, the Wrath of God, 1972.) “No,
Herzog’s best is that one with that creepy Wormtongue dude from Lord
of the Rings as a monologuing space alien.” (The Wild Blue
Yonder, 2005.) And so the legend of Herzog spread, through the
reverent whispers of film geeks, until 2005’s Grizzly Man, one
of Herzog’s best. Following a crazy dude who lived with (and was killed
by) grizzly bears in Alaska, the documentary gave Herzog’s previously
niche films a wider audience.
Now, with Rescue Dawn, Herzog is pushing, however gingerly,
at widespread American acceptance. Starring Christian Bale and Steve
Zahn, Rescue Dawn is getting wide release, and Herzog—a
fascinating filmmaker whose films have too-long been relegated to dusty
“foreign” shelves at American video stores—is finally getting some
popular appreciation. That’s what happens, I guess, when one goes from
making black-and-white movies about midgets to casting Batman in a
feel-good movie about an American pilot surviving the moral and
physical quagmire of Vietnam.
For its first third, there’s little to separate Herzog’s latest from
the plethora of “based on a true story” flicks about noble American
servicemen surviving under dire circumstances, from the
Buckheimer-approved bombast of Black Hawk Down to the rah-rah
patriotism of Behind Enemy Lines. But this is Herzog, so give it
the benefit of the doubt: Dieter Dengler (Bale) is a pilot who gets
shot down over Laos. Quickly captured and stuck in a POW camp, Dengler
meets a bunch of disheartened captives—including the batshit crazy Gene
deBruin (Jeremy Davies) and the psychologically fragile but loveable
Duane Martin (Zahn). Taking a dangerous risk, Dengler plots a
breakout.
It’s here—in Rescue Dawn‘s characters—that Herzog really gets
going. What unfolds is a sometimes funny, sometimes tense, sometimes
moving story about men—attempting to survive their captors, allies, and
selves. As Herzog’s scope widens from the prisoners’ camp to the
surrounding jungle, the emotional and psychological stakes rise
accordingly—on the surface, this is a pretty standard “survival in the
face of adversity” story; a bit deeper, it’s a heartfelt character
study.
Which is maybe what makes Rescue Dawn different from Herzog’s
previous efforts: Unlike almost every other Herzog film, Rescue
Dawn feels perfectly at home in a multiplex. On one hand, that’s
good—it exposes more people to Herzog’s work. On the other, there’s no
shaking the fact that Rescue Dawn—while emotionally engaging,
solidly directed, and with excellent performances—leaves something to
be desired, with its overall predictability and an almost-bland
aftertaste. But then again, this is Herzog we’re talking about—he’ll be
up to something bizarre and unexpected soon. Until then, Rescue
Dawn is as good a way as any to tide us over.
