A dramatised retelling of the story he first explored in his 1997 documentary Little Dieter Needs to Fly, Rescue Dawn retreads the path of many a Vietnam War POW story – albeit one imbued with Werner Herzog’s inimitable love for, and masterful grasp of, aural and visual details. Dieter Dengler (Christian Bale) is a German-born man who emigrated post-WWII to America following a near death experience that left him with the unquenchable desire to become a pilot. In his first military action in this role we see him shot down while on a black ops mission inside of Laos; later, from the confines of a primitive jungle prison run by desperate slowly starving locals, he leads a daring escape with several other POWs also being held in the camp – some upwards of two years (prior to the official beginning of the war!)

Beautifully shot by regular cinematographic collaborator Peter Zeitlinger (who also shot the 1997 Dengler documentary), Herzog delivers the audience right into the oppressive jungle heat and the awful monotony versus fear of incarcerated life. His use of archival napalm carpet bombing footage in the opening scene is inspired (even though writing that is as disturbing as reading it is.) Cast performances are generally strong throughout, though for my money Steve Zahn (as emotionally broken fellow inmate Duane) outshines Christian Bale whose capped-toothed facials occasionally break the illusion the film creates.

Free from documentary restraint (yes, even for Herzog) the master director occasionally overindulges his melodramatic tendencies with the odd scene which could have leapt straight out of An Officer and a Gentleman, or even worse, a Steven Seagal film (see the ‘emotion’ milking in the closing scene if you don’t believe me!) And though it worked in perfectly 90% of the time, I also found Klaus Badelt’s classical-oriented original score, at times, intrusive and inappropriate. But this is the worst that can be said about a film which is better, by far, than many OTT Vietnam War productions. Though Herzog might gloss up some of the elements of the original story, he doesn’t unnecessarily add to them, and his style is so artistically sure that you can’t walk away from Rescue Dawn film disappointed.—Jacob Powell