Rescue Dawn is the story of Dieter Dengler (Bale).  Dengler is a United States fighter pilot who was shot down over Laos during the Vietnam War.  He was captured as a POW and kept in a camp by the North Vietnamese.  Dengler engineered one of the most death-defying escapes ever recorded, not simply for the danger of the escape but the danger of death after the escape.  His camp was located many miles from the Big Muddy River, the bordering body of water for Thailand which represented freedom.

Dengler enters the camp and befriends Duane, another captive played surprisingly well by Steve Zahn.  Dengler begins his planning for the escape along with enlisting the help of multiple prisoners in his bunk.  The escape plan is quite complicated and the bulk of the movie is focused on it, so I won't divulge much more.

The Freak's Rating: C- : Christian Bale is one of our finest actors.  Bale has played some great characters in American Psycho, The Machinist and has completely stole the hearts of most comic book geeks out there with his portrayal of Batman in Batman Begins.  Bale is also not afraid to put himself into some physically demanding roles, ones I can just see actors in rooms with their agents saying no to.

Rescue Dawn is based on Werner Herzog's documentary, Little Dieter Needs To Fly, a documentary he filmed ten years ago.  Herzog wrote Rescue Dawn based upon it and for me it never completely works.  The settings are amazing (they filmed on location in Laos) and the acting is good, but the story wasn't captivating for me and I didn't care enough about the characters.  The ending of the film seems very tacked on and the patriotism that is displayed and apparently felt for the character doesn't fully transfer to the audience.  The potential for a great film was here, but sadly it falls short.

Angie's Rating: D : I thought this movie would be awesome, so much potential and such a let down.  Did the actors look at the script and just decide to read right off of the page??  It was so dry, I almost feel asleep in places.  Believe me, it's pretty bad when I start falling asleep during a movie... I wouldn't even watch it on the computer if I had nothing to do at work.

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