Rescue Dawn

Director: Werner Herzog
Year Released: 2006
Rating: 2.0

Now that Herzog has made both a documentary and a feature film based on the same story (Dieter Dengler's plane crash in Laos during the Vietnam War), I can say without question the documentary is better (and more surreal). Christian Bale proves he's one of the best actors working with his slightly-off portrayal of the man whose only real passion in life was flying (and proves life is ironic: Dengler survived several more crashes in his lifetime but died from Lou Gehrig's Disease), but the picture itself fails to distinguish itself as either a survivalist or POW picture, with the middle segment - of being captured by the Vietcong - being particularly unsurprising.