Mark reviews Rescue Dawn

This movie was amazing. Christian Bale goes above and beyond yet again. It's no secret he's by far one of my favorite actors, but I mean look at how he dives into movies with a level of devotion to character that surpasses EVERYTHING.

Still one of my favorite stories is how Christian didn't want people to be think that he was some brit coming in to play the American classic super-hero batman, so for all interviews he remained in his American accent. Now, this is just to set the stage of a man who never seems to lose hope after crashing his plane in Laos and becoming a POW. Based upon the true story of Lt. Dieter Dengler, a German American citizen pilot in the US Navy who's plane goes down and who is held captive in a Laotian camp for several months, and who devised one of the greatest escapes ever. Steve Zahn steps up huge as well. For some reason I can never get the image of him as the guitarist from the One-ders, so seeing him in a role like this was outstanding. Werner Herzog brings an amazing cast together with an outstanding story to create something truly inspiring. We see Dieter's fascination for the little things while captured, and his struggle (along with the other prisoners) for survival. You can literally see the effects it has on the prisoners' minds and bodies, yet Dieter never seems to lose his spirit.

I never want to get lost in the Laotian jungle.

mm out