Rescue Dawn

The Navy airman Dieter Dengler (Christian Bale), the hero of Werner Herzog�s Vietnam-era P.O.W. escape film, �Rescue Dawn,� at first seems a conventional action-movie hero: handsome, resourceful, brave and optimistic. But the more time spent with him, the more eccentricities he reveals. He has a geeky laugh. His sunny-side-up speechifying suggests an elementary school gym coach with a Vince Lombardi fixation. He only seems typical.
So does Mr. Herzog�s movie, which reimagines his 1997 documentary, �Little Dieter Needs to Fly,� as a drama of imprisonment, survival and perseverance. Although financed independently, it superficially resembles the likes of �Papillon� and �The Great Escape.� With its straightforward narrative, which observes Dengler being shot down during his first mission over Laos; surviving torture, isolation, confinement and starvation; and hatching a daring breakout, �Rescue Dawn� seems a departure from Mr. Herzog�s �Aguirre, The Wrath of God,� �Fitzcarraldo,� �Grizzly Man� and other cautionary tales of visionary madmen.

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