Rescue Dawn (2007)
Rescue Dawn is Werner Herzog’s fictionalized film based on Little Dieter Has to Fly, the documentary he did on Dieter Dengler, a German-born American airman shot down in Laos and taken prisoner in North Vietnam. Though it features some gruesome torture and survival scenes, it’s a stirring tale, all the more for the performances of Christian Bale and Steve Zahn, who were snubbed this award season. This movie shoot had to be gruesome–heat, jungle, starvation, bugs. Everyone involved deserves credit for this overlooked film.
For all the films I’ve seen, and for those that I think I want to see, visit my library at Gurulib.