Rescue Dawn - DVD Review

“It wasn’t the usual conversation with a director,” recalls Christian Bale of his first meeting with Werner Herzog. “We sat down, got a drink and he said: ‘So, have you got any interest in swimming through leech-infested rivers? How do you feel about biting the head off a snake?’ They were kinda curious questions…” Well, Rescue Dawn’s a kinda curious movie: part war movie, part biopic of Dieter Dengler (the only US pilot to escape captivity in ’Nam), part comedy and part sequel to Herzog’s offbeat doc Little Dieter Needs To Fly. It’s held together by Bale’s standout turn as the oddball airman leading PoWs to freedom. The featurettes prove the actor’s untouchable rep as a professional masochist, while Herzog supplies an authoritative yak-track.