Collective Movie Review: Rescue Dawn

Saw Rescue Dawn last night with Ed Eubanks, Nick Gleason, Clay Johnson, Mark Peach, and Travis Scott. I asked the guys if they'd contribute a thought or two to a collective movie review here today, so check the comments for their thoughts as they post them.

In the meantime, here's a brief summary along with a few thoughts of my own on the film:

Christian Bale plays Dieter Dengler, an American who naively signs up with the Navy to "just fly planes," but instead gets sent on a secret mission to bomb targets in Laos during the Vietnam Conflict. Dengler's plane gets shot down and he is captured, enduring plenty of hardship along the way. The rest of the movie focuses on his interactions with a handful of other POWs and their quest to survive and eventually escape.

The plot is familiar and includes much of what you might expect from a movie about Vietnam - lots of jungle, plenty of hungry people (both American and Vietnamese), and rain. Unfortunately, there was little new to add to one's understanding of Vietnam (which was disappointing coming from documentary filmmaker Werner Herzog) and very little character development as to who Dengler and his fellow prisoners really are (other than prisioners).

I went in to the movie with high hopes of seeing a really great performance from Christian Bale (who I really like as an actor), but I'm not sure I saw anything particularly exceptional. In general, Bale is best the darker things get, and his overly-optimistic portrayal of Dengler (especially early on) seemed forced. Still, his intensity was good, and he endured some pretty nasty stuff to play the part, so those are points in my book.

I was, however, blown away by the performances of prisoners Jeremy Davies as "Eugene from Eugene (OR)" and Steve Zahn as "Dwayne," who I thought stole the show. Davies essentially starved himself in real life to play the incredibly gaunt (and semi-delusional) Eugene, and Zahn was brilliantly fragile peering out through emotional eyes from behind his overgrown beard and hair. Possible Oscar for best supporting actor? I'd say Zahn could be in the running.

Those are some of my initial observations. I'll turn it over to the guys and see what they think.