Rescue Dawn

Werner Herzog's latest fiction feature is a dramatisation of the story he told in his 1997 documentary, Little Dieter Needs to Fly, and is based on the experience of German-born US fighter pilot Dieter Dengler.

Christian Bale gives a quite brilliant, physical performance as Dengler, shot down and captured in the jungles of Laos in 1965, during the Vietnam War. He is brutally tortured yet offered an opportunity to be released if he will denounce American imperialism. He refuses. "I love America", he declares, "America gave me wings". He's thrown into a POW camp with broken men, including fellow American soldiers Duane (Steve Zahn) and Gene (Jeremy Davies), who just want to serve their time, praying that the war will end soon. Dengler refuses to adopt their attitude and takes on a leader's role, inspiring the men to not only find the courage to endure their ordeal, but to also believe that they may be able to escape it.

A film about America at war can't avoid having resonance with what's going on in the world right now, and Rescue Dawn doesn't dodge the issue, while the astonishing jungle settings, horribly claustrophobic and savage, yet somehow beautiful, reference Herzog's previous classics Aguirre, Wrath of God and Fitzcarraldo.

Michael Hayden