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Rescue Dawn may not feel much like a Herzog movie, but it's a gripping real-life thriller.
But just as exciting -- maybe even more so, for those who love the medium and, especially, the uplift of the great-escape genre -- Rescue Dawn is a triumphant Werner Herzog movie.
Herzog builds this movie around another strong, eccentric performance from Bale, who is gaining a reputation for outsized talent and for downsized physicality.
Takes what could have been a mundane if well-made war story into something greater -- more harrowing, more hungry and more human.
The performances here are as excellent as they are unnerving.
... everything about Rescue Dawn feels real ...
The jungle has been very good to Werner Herzog.
Werner Herzog isn't interested in patriotism as product placement, like other directors might be. Though uncommonly somber, "Dawn" is still an engrossing prison-break film. It's not "The Great Escape." It's "The Sheer, Dumb Luck Escape."
Dumps traditional war movie bravado in favor of a subtler touch, and softens the blow of an unspeakable ordeal by shooting it amidst a series of jarringly beautiful and poetic canvases.
Bale's lack of ambiguity points to the biggest limitation of a film that makes the grade as an adventure yarn by ignoring the most disturbing implications of its story.
Not the typical Chuck Norris movie, but just as rancid in its own "edgy" pretentious manner.
Most critics have approached Werner Herzog's latest film Rescue Dawn with qualifying kid gloves, as if it would be impolite to question a late work from such a grand old man of the seventies German New Wave.
Rescue Dawn wouldn't be half the film it is if it were not for the stellar performances by Bale and Zahn.
Intense POW film explores torture, survival.
At first glance, "Rescue Dawn" might seem like Herzog gone Hollywood, but it's still very much the man's work. Herzog has his cake and eats it too.
Complex and multi-faceted, Herzog has made a film with the skin of an action movie and the heart of a rhythmic, reflective poem
Emocionante como aventura e como exemplo da força do espírito humano, comprova o talento inquestionável de Herzog, um dos diretores contemporâneos mais importantes e surpreendentes.
Herzog doesn't talk politics but they hang over the film... while the escape drama is pure Herzog.
Stellar performances by Christian Bale and Steve Zahn make Rescue Dawn a quietly compelling film.
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