Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Rescue Dawn- By Carol Ostling






Title/Year: Rescue Dawn, 2006
Director/Birth Country/Year Born: Werner Herzog, Germany,1942
Budget: $10 million (estimated)
Gross: $7.2 million (worldwide)
Synopsis: A German-American pilot, Dieter Dengler (Christian Bale), is shot down, and taken as a prisoner of war. There he meets five other prisoners and is determined to escape, no matter the cost. The group discovers that the jungle is the real prison they are trying to escape. During their escape the loyal friend to Dengler, Duane is killed. Dengler alone is rescued by an American helicopter and known as a hero amidst his peers.
Narrative and Visual Keywords: Bindings,handcuffs, physiological struggles, POW, starvation, rice, food, bomber pilot, Navy, jungle, rain, rescue, friendship, optimism, nail, be heading, death, water  
Characterization/ Dialogue: Dieter Dengler's character is the overly positive prisoner. He is determined almost to a fault. At the same time it is that determination that got them out. However, when they get out Duane ends up dying and this mentally breaks Dengler. Dengler gets rescued at a high price.  
Camera/lighting/editing technique: I noticed that when they were in the jungle a lot of the times we would be viewing the character of interest through something. There would always be grass, branches, or general junglyness in the foreground of the frame. It made you feel like you were there with them. There were also a lot of MS and the camera was physically very close to the characters.
Political/ Social Commentary: The film doesn't have too much of a political view. The commentary seems to be more on the fact that the war was hard for everyone. The captors were starving as well. This film was also a lot about the endurance and fragility of the human psyche.   
Historical Relevance/ Recognition: The movie is based on the true story of Dieter Dengler, a German-American pilot who was shot down and captured in Laos. The story has one crucial difference, there were 7 prisoners instead of 6. However, Herzog found the film easier to mange with only 6. This the first major instance of Digital Visual effects in Herzog’s career. Christian Bale won an award from San Diego Film Critics Society in the category of Body of Work. There has been some controversy as to the accuracy of this film. One of the real POW’s has stated that they never were able to talk to Herzog about what really happened.  
Notable Collaboration: Werner Herzog
Random fact, Etc.: All of the actors took several months to lose weight for their role; because it is easier to gain weight, they shot the whole film in reverse.
1.       Is the soldier/veteran depicted as being in control of his destiny? 
Dengler is portrayed as man who controls his own destiny through out most of the film. Even through the jungle, starvation, Mother Nature and general crappiness tries to take over Dengler is still determined to escape. His ability to escape is his destiny. If he doesn’t try to escape he will die because of starvation and boredom. He believes he has a better chance of surviving in the jungle then in prison. When he escapes Dengler finds out that the jungle is a prison in its self. Again he must take control over his destiny, but he fails at his attempt and it ends up in the hands of fate that he is found.

2. What political sub-text, or overt theme is the film exploring?
 
Herzog has been open that this film explores the cruelties of man and nature. I believe he captured that well for a pg-13 film. In the POW camp Herzog shows that it’s not always the captors that are cruel it can also be the inaction of a fellow prisoner causing your own death.  When in the jungle you feel Mother Nature almost as an entity trying to take Dengler’s life and psyche. It is the cruelties of man that takes Dengler’s mind to the edge of sanity.  


3. How are masculinity and patriarchy displayed through the main character(s) -- broken and dissociated or reinstated and productive. 
 
Dengler’s character shows masculinity and patriarchy as reinstated and productive. Through out most of the film Gene is not willing to escape and is often trying to seed doubt into the prisoners minds. Dengler takes control of the group from Gene’s insanity and they end up escaping. One scene in the movie that shows the authority Dengler holds is when Gene has acted up and Dengler refuses to unlock everyone from their handcuffs as punishment for Gene. The way he's productive is how they actually escape, Dengler was never just sitting around waiting to die, he was thinking, planning and gathering supplies. Because he was productive and had a real plan the men followed.  

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