Rescue Dawn

Okay, I have mixed feelings about this movie. It was fascinating plot-wise, what with the getting captured by Laotian soldiers, meeting other American pilots that no one knew were imprisoned, and finally the intense escape. Christian Bale was, of course, amazing. But this movie left me wanting for something more meaningful. I guess maybe they were trying to stick really close to the true story, but the ending was just missing that inspirational feeling that I like to get from intense-but-triumphant true stories. When Dieter Dengler was finally back on his Navy ship after the whole ordeal, he was asked to give a message to the men: What helped him get through the torture? What kept him going? And in the movie he said, "Fill what's empty, empty what's full, I want a steak now..." or something like that. It just seemed a trifle facetious to what should have been a lot more meaningful moment.

Not a film for kids--there is some machine gun shooting which is a bit intense. The torture scenes weren't quite as bad as I thought they would be--they showed him getting dragged behind a donkey, shoved under water, and hung upside down with a cow pie or something tied to his face, but they weren't like whipping him or cutting off toes, luckily. The torture went by pretty quickly.

Oh, and why didn't it tell us what happened to Eugene and Phisit and Procet? No mention of them at all. That was weird.

Other notes--Bale is PAINFULLY thin in this. Wow. Good depiction of starvation, buddy. Also, the scenery is AMAZING. Makes me want to go to Laos. Oh wait, they still are a bunch of commies over there. Never mind. :)

Oh actually I found out it was filmed in Thailand. Let's go there, k Dan?