Kid reviews for Rescue Dawn

I cant believe commonsense says 5/5 violence. I saw this movie yesterday day with my family, including my 9 year old brother. He absolutely loved it. They is some shooting and one scene where the cut Steve Zahns leg and there is a bloody wound. Also there is one mothertrucker but other than that great movie!

Writer-director Werner Herzog, whose films have always been marked by a rapport with the natural world, takes this trademark to Laos in "Rescue Dawn," a compelling, intimate account of the Vietnam conflict. Based on the real-life tale of Dieter Dengler (Christian Bale), a German-born/American-bred fighter pilot with a cocky, cowboy-like demeanor, the film goes for realism and largely succeeds. The setting is a microscopic POW camp where Dengler and a half-dozen prisoners, including Dwight (Steve Zahn, playing well against type) and Gene (Jeremy Davies--"Saving Private Ryan") plot an escape. Interestingly, the extensive Vietnamese spoken in the film is not subtitled, which actually adds to the strong sense of isolation incurred from the POWs' position. Herzog also paints "Rescue Dawn" as a timely meditation on the Iraq War--while Dieter's John Wayne persona (that takes a drastically different turn in the second half) could be read as an endorsement of American militarism, we see the emaciated, defeated prisoners almost as symbols of a war that's been "lost" from the beginning; even later in the film, the Vietnamese captors begin to show the same signs of fatigue and desperation. The whole concept of "escape" is essential to making an entertaining, suspenseful film (which "Rescue Dawn" certainly is), but also reflective of a current foreign-policy mess that should have been curtailed before it even began. But Herzog is subtle in his politics, and lets the jungle do most of the talking--once Dieter and his fellow prisoners escape, the road to a "happy ending" is anything but "cut and dry." The director often puts us in the midst of torture and terror, but also milks moments of surprising humor to great effect, and gets excellent performances from the entire cast (while Bale is top-billed, Zahn and Davies are the real standouts). My only real complaint about the film is a conclusion that comes off as contrived and unnecessary, stretching the credibility of the harrowing realism that came before. Otherwise, "Rescue Dawn" is one of 2007's standout features.

this gritty and sometimes explosive war film based on a true story about a pilot who becomes a POW after being shot down in Laos is packed with things that kids love: cool action scenes, intense suspense, and lots of guns. but given the sometimes graphic nature of this film, it is to intense for younger kids. this film has little action, but has some realistic scenes of torture and treatment of soldiers. people are beaten, shot, stabbed, hung upside down with a beehive on their face, and pushed around. other soldiers have ibs exposed due to starvation. there many bloody wounds. the opening sequence has massive explosions and bombs falling. people use the S word a lot.

The story is very profound and good, but the language is a little to much for young viewers. Past the language it is a good movie to on a Friday night.

This movie was pretty good once it got going. However, there was some violence that sensitive teens may find a little much. The language consisted of about 15 S-words, and a few uses of many others. All in all, it was worth seeing at least once!

Christian Bale has acted superbly in another movie. His performance was his best... except when he was a child acting in Empire of the Sun. The movie starts off with Dieter Dengler's first assignment as a naval aviator, and after a harrowing survival struggle ends back on his ship again. The movie's cinematography was like in Saving Private Ryan- a lot of handheld camera work that made you feel more like you were there. The directing was one of Werner Herzog's best efforts. Overall, the movie ranked right up their with The Great Escape in terms of escape movies. Well Done! -