Film Review. Rescue Dawn

US Navy-fighter pilot Dieter Dengler is stationed at the Gulf of Tonkin during the Vietnam War 1965. In a top-secret mission with his squadron over Laos he gets hit during the maneuver and falls into the jungle, where he soon finds himself in the hands of the Vietcong.

The story in “Rescue Dawn” is as close as possible to the story of the real Dengler. The hero's ensuing struggle to escape symbolizes a larger fight for freedom. He refuses to sign an anti-US propaganda paper of the North Vietnamese bureau (which would have been worthless in any case). He shouts at the North Vietnamese officer that America made it possible to fulfill his dreams. He would never sign a paper blaming America. It's clear that nothing can stop this character's determination to escape.

Director Werner Herzog is himself an adventurer. In his biography and in the story of the making of his famous movie “Aguirre: The Wrath Of God” and “Fitzcarraldo”, you enter the mind of a man who is willing to die for his art and his profession. In his films, his inner self and his protagonists characters he is interested in are closely related.

Watch the movie and enjoy the journey of a man who wants to be free, fighting brutal repression and the merciless forces of nature far from civilization.

Niklas Anzinger is a Contributing Writer for The Propagandist