There’s a moment in “Rescue Dawn” that, when viewed through the lens of war stories and tales of human endurance, is nothing short of sublime. Dieter Dengler (Christian Bale) has been imprisoned in a Laotian POW camp for six months, and following a daring prison break, he casts off his shackles in a bid to try his odds out in the wild, forbidding jungles that separate him from his American comrades. Wading down the river, cold and hungry, he spots a snake slithering across a rock. But rather than avoid the danger, Dengler grabs the snake, whacks it against a rock, and bites into it raw.

It’s at once a shocking – and maybe even disgusting – gesture, but rarely can I recall an image that more forcefully evokes the grit of human determination and the euphoria of a man, written off as dead, returning back to life. This, my friends, is a survivor, and if it takes biting into a snake to survive, then all snakes better beware.

Directed by art house icon Werner Herzog, this snake scene is not all that unusual for just about any character in any Herzog film. Long fascinated by that tipping point, where sophisticated society reverts back to raw, animalistic behavior, Herzog’s perhaps best-known recent film is his documentary “Grizzly Man,” which told the story of activist Timothy Treadwell, who turned his back on humanity in favor of living with the bears in northern Alaska.
Over the years, Treadwell came to think of himself as one of the pack, one day he was viciously mauled and killed by one of his “friends.”

In 1997, Herzog actually made a documentary about Dengler, titled “Little Dieter Needs To Fly,” the director already clearly captivated by what sort of commitment and intensity would be required not only to endure a POW camp, but to be the only person to emerge from that hell hole unscathed.

Here, a fictional treatment allows Herzog to dig deeper into the way Dengler was beat down over his months in captivity, and the way he had to detach himself from his experience from what was occurring in order to overcome it.

Originally trying to give the enemy the slip, Denger’s time in the prison camp starts ominously, as he meets up with Duane (Steve Zahn), who has already been at this camp for years, and whose worn and damaged face says just about all that Dengler needs to know about the efficiency of this jungle prison.

As the days turn into weeks, and weeks into months, Dengler believes they will be rescued, and then turns his hopes to a far-fetched escape plan that he, Duane and the other inmates prepare for on a daily basis.

Working out a complex scenario in which they will break out of their shackles (they are even chained together at night, in a position that makes it nearly impossible to sleep), flank the guards during their lunch break and surprise them with an assault from every angle.

Of course, the larger question is where they will go after they break out – the jungle surrounds them for miles and miles in every direction – and how they will ever reunite with American forces even if they survive the rough terrain.

As played by Bale, Dengler is a fiery pragmatist, a fascinating mix of an enraged soldier who knows what to do, but a patient chess player who is methodical enough to realize that he must act smartly, not rashly. And the crescendo of the film is not the escape – nor that snake scene – but the formal homecoming of Dengler, and his reintroduction to his fellow soldiers.

We look into his eyes for any glimpse of truth or depth, in hopes of understanding how a man could possibly endure something like this and emerge whole. And in this way, “Rescue Dawn” is no different than any Herzog film: It’s about a man traveling to the brink, and our bewilderment at following him to that dark place, wondering all the while what’s ticking behind those eyes and that smile that allows him not to be destroyed by the very worst of humanity.

Source: The Desert Sun