Login/Sign Up   

Rescue Dawn - 2 1/2 stars

“Rescue Dawn” is another movie about the Vietnam War, it’s another film in which an American military man finds himself trying to survive by himself and it’s also another film in which Christian Bale (“Reign Of Fire”, “Empire of the Sun”) is in a P.O.W. camp. I went into it expecting a lot but I found myself unable to enjoy the film’s slow pace.

In “Rescue Dawn”, Bale stars as pilot Dieter Dengler. Dengler gets shot down over Laos while on a secret bombing run. He is soon captured by the Viet Cong and placed in a P.O.W. camp. From there, he plots his escape but some of the other prisoners aren’t so eager to try and break out.

Christian Bale is a fine actor but I really felt like this film didn’t offer him enough. I tried my hardest to enjoy his performance but I just couldn’t quite do it. Steve Zahn (“Sahara”) plays one of the other prisoners in the camp. It’s a decent performance but like Bale’s, I found it was hindered by the film’s script. The Viet Cong don’t really do much in this film and certainly none of them really stuck out. The characters in this film made me wish I was watching something more memorable such as “Full Metal Jacket”.

The film is very slow and the characters aren’t too interesting but the film looks very good and some of the scenes near the end are quite impressive. It’s meant to be a moving and interesting piece but although it was better than something such as “Behind Enemy Lines” (a film that was also about a downed pilot trying to survive), it lacked the punch of other Vietnam War movies such as “Full Metal Jacket” and other P.O.W. films such as “Empire of the Sun”. Maybe my expectations were too high but I think if you’ve seen those movies then you’ll find yourself pretty bored by “Rescue Dawn”.

Leave a comment

Make sure you enter all the required information, indicated by an asterisk (*). HTML code is not allowed.

Copyright © Joseph Film Reviews  All rights reserved

Cookie Policy | GDPR Consent Form | GDPR Policy Statement

Website Designed By Mariner Computer Services Ltd