Real-life excitement in the movies
They say life is stranger than fiction and I guess that’s the
reason so many films are based on real people. In 1966, Dieter
Dengler was shot down over Laos, in a military campaign no one was
supposed to know about. He was captured, held in a jungle prison
camp and eventually escaped.
Real-life excitement in the movies
They say life is stranger than fiction and I guess that’s the reason so many films are based on real people. In 1966, Dieter Dengler was shot down over Laos, in a military campaign no one was supposed to know about. He was captured, held in a jungle prison camp and eventually escaped.
Director Werner Herzog first told Dengler’s story in the 1997 documentary “Little Dieter Needs to Fly.” But the topic was so intriguing to the German director that he has revisited the saga again in the recently released-to-DVD film “Rescue Dawn.”
As with many biopics, there is no doubt that parts of the story have been fictionalized or dramatized to make the movie more engaging to viewers. And as with movies based on things that really happened, most of us know the outcome of the movie, so the reason to watch “Rescue Dawn” is the journey to the end. Christian Bale plays Dengler and the actor lost a dramatic 55 pounds to play the part – Dengler himself weighed 85 pounds when he escaped.
Herzog is the type of director who immerses himself and his crew in the movie. He doesn’t believe in filming on a set, but always goes out on location. In the 1982 film “Fitzcarraldo,” about a captain of a steam ship who wants to build an opera house in the Peruvian jungle, Herzog insisted the boat drift through rapids. Three of the six people on board were wounded and one man ended up with two broken ribs.
In one scene, it calls for the boat to go up a mountain side. Herzog required that the 340 ton steam ship literally be moved up the mountain by a bulldozer without the use of special effects. The result is a 158 minute movie that I highly recommend people avoid. I watched it just once for a film class in college and it seemed like the never-ending story.
But the same dedication to his work that Herzog showed with “Fitzcarraldo,” pays off in “Rescue Dawn.” While the actors lost dramatic amounts of weight – nearly 130 pounds combined for the three lead actors – Herzog lost 30 pounds as well in a show of solidarity. The result is that the characters are completely believable as prisoners of war who have been in the camp for varying amounts of time and who have lost their sanity to varying degrees.
Dengler is the most recent captive and he is taken in when his plane crashes in Laos. He is beaten and tortured by his captives before they take him to a prison camp of sorts. There he finds himself with two other American captives and a mix of native prisoners. Some of the other prisoners have been there for years, and one prisoner, Gene (Jeremy Davies), is convinced that they will be released at any moment.
But Dengler isn’t one to wait around and he starts to think of how the group can escape.
The most dramatic moments in the movie are not conflicts between the prisoners and their guards, but between the prisoners themselves. Most of the men have given up hope, and they become less lucid as food becomes scarcer. Dengler is the only one who seems able to hold it together and he quickly comes up with the first step in his escape plan. It causes plenty of conflict with the other prisoners, some who are unwilling to risk escaping.
The acting is what makes this movie work so well. Davies is excellent as Gene, who is constantly antagonizing Dengler and trying to thwart the escape plans. It is clear that his sanity is long gone. The actor has plenty of experience playing crazies, though, as he played Charles Manson in the made-for-TV movie “Helter Skelter.”
Steve Zahn plays Duane Martin and Martin is the only prisoner Dengler really connects with. Gene is crazy after all, and with some of the other prisoners there are language barriers. The relationship between the two after they escape is what really makes the movie worth watching because it shows that people who have been through something so atrocious can hold on to their humanity.
Amazing Grace
Another biopic that deserves a mention is “Amazing Grace.” The movie came in under the radar when it was released in 2006, but it certainly is worth a watch on DVD. While there are plenty of movies about the fight to abolish slavery in the United States, there is often less focus on Europe’s role during the era. This film follows the journey of William Wilberforce (Ioan Gruffudd), a member of Parliament in England, who works with a small group of abolitionists to end the British transatlantic slave trade.
The movie takes its name from the song of the same name. A slave trader turned preacher wrote the song in the early 19th century after realizing how much pain and suffering he had caused. Gruffudd turns a great performance and is supported by other actors such as Michael Gambon, Albert Finney and Rufus Sewell.
