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July 27, 2007
RESCUE DAWN . . .
. . . is pretty much the best movie I've seen in theaters since CHILDREN OF MEN. I was attracted to film because of its director, the German legend/fanatic Werner Herzog. Herzog has made some of the most amazing, mind-boggling movies I've ever seen - he always sets the bar too high and somehow always ends up ankle deep in a Peruvian swamp holding a camera and swatting away black flies. The stories of the making of his masterpieces FITZCARRALDO and AGUIRRE: WRATH OF GOD, starring Klaus Kinski, are just as fascinating as the movies themselves. His best films involve man's (often failed) struggle against nature, which is depicted as, well, natural. RESCUE DAWN is no different.
But it is different, sort of, because Herzog has nothing but great love for his protagonist, Dieter Dengler, so much so that he made a documentary about him in 1997. Dengler crash-landed in the jungle and was subjected to the twin horrors of a prison camp and surviving the jungle. As Dengler, Christian Bale reminds me why he is perhaps the most interesting actor working today. He is capable of doing so many things, and his whole demeanor suggests he's kind of an a-hole, but in RESCUE DAWN he's affable, optimistic, and practically goofy.
For this reason, the film is not nearly as bleak as the aforementioned masterpieces. Dengler does not have the Mephistolean tendencies of the Kinski characters - who Herzog admires for their drive but reviles for the fanaticism (perhaps an aspect of his own self-loathing). Herzog wants to celebrate him, not examine him, and while RESCUE DAWN doesn't sidestep politics, the heroism is moved to the forefront even in the face of unrelenting nature, which Herzog continues to film better than anyone else ever has.
Must see.
I also saw ZODIAC. I have to admit I liked Jake Gyllenhaal, who I've grown fond of making fun of. He has a sort of Redford in ALL THE PRESIDENTS MEN, a quirky workmanlike demeanor. Mark Ruffalo is also great as the cop who, apparently, inspired Bullitt and Dirty Harry. I also liked the look and unique, unshowy re-creation of the period. But the film itself came off as an extended episode of LAW AND ORDER. In its attempt to document procedure, it struggled to be entertaining.
I have yet to blog about TRANSFORMERS and PIRATES OF CARIBBEAN 3, mainly because I don't want to. Let's just say that at no point, in either movie, did I have a damn clue what was going on. Apparently, in TRANSFORMERS, there is a cube that can blow up the earth, and by touching it, it shrinks from gigantic to able to fit in the palm of your hand. A lot of people liked it. I think I saw the wrong movie. I am convinced that Michael Bay thinks that all grown-ups will laugh at increasingly juvenile humor.
But to end on a positive note, see RESCUE DAWN. It's a great film.
| By Andytown | 03:43 PM
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