by rick grant rickgrant01@comcast.net
A- Rated PG-13 126 min
In this Vietnam-era POW film, filmmaker Werner Herzog again blurs the line between documentary and fiction with a dark, character-driven scenario about a real veteran. Dieter Dengler (Christian Bale) is a German-born American fighter pilot on a secret bombing mission into Laos during the Vietnam War. Herzog’s premise delves deeply into the psychology of human survival and what allows some people to survive extreme conditions while others succumb to the effects of deprivation.
Specifically, Herzog takes the viewer on Dengler’s journey down his river of darkness, into starvation and torture, as he rises above his pain and suffering to seek a solution to his problem by adopting a positive attitude and never giving up. His remarkable story is a victory of the human spirit against all odds. He refused to allow his soul to be crushed by his captors’ cruelty.
On Dengler’s first combat mission, he is shot down in the thick jungle of Laos. Miraculously unhurt after the crash, Dengler runs for cover as a rag-tag band of Laotian militia troops close in on his position. He avoids capture for two days, but is finally caught and immediately tortured. He is forced to go to a primitive POW camp that makes the infamous Hanoi Hilton look like a five star hotel by comparison. There he meets the grossly malnourished prisoners, who are in advanced stages of starvation. Dengler sees that, unless he escapes, he could rot in this jungle hell hole. The other prisoners have lost hope and are delusional from the effects of malnutrition.
Dengler takes charge as the group’s leader and inspirational guide, but it’s an uphill struggle. The other prisoners are terribly weak and sick. They’ve lost hope. Dengler must get them out of that mindset to plan an escape. Dengler’s positive attitude, combined with his personable treatment of the other prisoners, gradually wins some new recruits. Duane (Steve Zahn) is another flyer who was shot down two years before, and they become friends. Gene (Jeremy Davies) has degraded deeply into a mental illness caused by lack of nutrients. He’s scared to make a break for it, so Dengler has to play him with a delicate touch.
At night, the prisoners are handcuffed and put into leg restraints. However, Dengler was a tool-maker in Germany and knows how to break out of the cuffs. Each night, they break free of their restraints and plan their escape. Dengler noticed that the guards leave their rifles at their huts to go to evening chow, so he plans a coordinated attack to seize their weapons and take the guards hostage. Getting Gene to cooperate is Dengler’s biggest worry. Gene is bonkers and afraid to attack the guards. Nonetheless, Dengler has no choice but to include him in the plan.
Getting out of the prison is one thing, but the challenge exists in the jungle, many miles from civilization. Finding water and food will be the escapees’ biggest problem. But Dengler would rather die in the jungle than waste away in the camp. The time comes for the escape and it goes smoothly until he and Duane arrive at the kitchen hut where the others were supposed to meet him. They do not show up, so Dengler is forced to improvise, which was not his plan.
Thus begins their ordeal of survival, as the vast jungle takes its toll on the two starving men. Dengler and Duane meet many obstacles to their survival as they try to navigate back to a populated area. The ordeal of the two men’s survival is the guts of Herzog’s story. The jungle’s incessant triple-digit heat index and thick vegetation is hell to move through and food is hard to come by without shooting game, which would give away their position. During this exciting segment, Herzog relies on Bale and Zahn to skillfully act-out the rapid deterioration of each man’s physical and mental health, as they face the impossible odds of getting out of the jungle alive. It’s this struggle that serves as a metaphor for life’s caprices that we all face as we navigate through our physical world journey. The Laotian jungle serves as an accelerator of that struggle for these two men.
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EU Critic’s Choice Awards
