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Director: Werner Herzog
Starring: Christian Bale, Steve Zahn, Jeremy Davies
An action drama by based on the director's 1997 documentary,
Little Dieter Needs to Fly. The film recounts the true
story of German-born Dieter Dengler, who dreamed of being
a pilot and eventually made his way to the United States
where he joined the military during the Vietnam war.
In the winter of 1966, it was his first mission in South
East Asia, Dengler was shot down over the Ho Chi Minh
trail and when his fellow squadron members saw the wreckage
of his plane they knew his chances were grim. He had crashed
into Laotian jungle sweltering with heat, teeming with
poisonous snakes, surrounded by unfriendly villages and
ringed by impassable limestone hills. Even if he managed
to survive the jungle he would be an immediate target
for Pathet Lao soldiers, the local equivalent of the Viet
Cong, who considered a captured American a rare prize.
To this day about 500 Americans remain missing or unaccounted
for in Laos.
At the time the United States did not even acknowledge
it was conducting military operations in Laos: Dengler
was literally lost to the world. No one knew where he
was and no one was even likely to attempt to rescue him.
He was likely to have died there if it were not for the
fact that he took matters into his own hands - buoyed
by an internal light no matter how hard the circumstances.
Review by Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
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With an eye to the commercial Hollywood market Herzog
has put together an effective, unassuming and old-fashioned
action adventure. Christian Bale brings his formidable
presence and concentration to the part of Dengler; Steve
Zahn plays Duane, the fellow American who escaped with
him, and Jeremy Davies gives an outstanding performance
as Gene, the third American, who has become psychologically
unglued after years of captivity in the bamboo prison.
Emaciated, spaced-out, all but incoherent, this is a double-distilled
method performance from Davies, with a little of Dennis
Hopper in Apocalypse Now, but a touch more plausible and
authentic. The obvious comparison is with Herzog's crazy-visionary
films like Aguirre, Wrath of God or Fitzcarraldo, but
here Herzog pulls back from the metaphysical brink.
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