Universal Pictures are the lucky bastards to have gotten Inglorious Bastards, reports Variety. The studio will partner with the Weinstein Company to produce the Quentin Tarantino film scheduled for release next year.

In related news, Tarantino has met with Brad Pitt and Leonardo diCaprio for their respective roles as Aldo Raine and Nazi Hans Landa.

Shooting is set to begin this Fall in Germany and France.

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Ever since the revival of soundtracks in the mid 90’s, the debate has become a tired one, always boiling down to the same few choices. It’s either a soundtrack that accumulates the latest and coolest tracks of the day, such as Trainspotting, or else one of Tarantino’s collections of disparate tunes that somehow manage to gain a new, hip meaning when he assembles them together. Scores rarely get a look in.

But that’s not to deny the importance of the soundtrack. Indeed, what would Scorsese’s film be without the barrage of rock n’ roll tracks. Or films like Gattaca, The End of the Affair, and The Piano would arguably be half as powerful if Michael Nyman’s compositions were removed. Yet there are strange occurrences in which the film’s makers, disappointing in their delivery, still manage to throw together the right songs and help slightly elevate the film’s lagging quality.

Below are five of the best examples I can find of film’s whose soundtracks suggest something far greater than the sub-par flicks themselves. Read on »

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While the media have been salivating for the next instalment of the war of words between Spike Lee and Clint Eastwood, many have ignored the context in which it started: the lack of depictions of African-American soldiers in WWII. And Spike Lee is putting his money where his mouth is after directing Miracle at St. Anna, due out in the U.S. on September 26.

The film, based on a novel by James McBride, deals with the 92nd Infantry Division, who were mostly African-American. The plot seems to centre around them being trapped behind enemy lines in Italy, while also referencing the Sant Anna di Stazzema massacre, in which the retreating SS killed 500 or so Italian villagers.

The film looks like Lee’s most ambitious to date. Sure, he recreated the times of Malcolm X, but it feels odd to see a Lee film involve artillary, bombings, and Nazi symbols. The film seems to include a storyline involving a precious sculpture, that is framed by a 1983 murder. There is a similarity between this and Lee’s Inside Man, which was a thriller with a mild historical subtext. However, if Lee is intending to make a similar film, he may risk, like Inside Man, focussing too much on the thrills and less on the chaos and tragedy of war. And while Lee’s intent on representing another side of WWII that most are unfamilar with, unless Lee’s fully explores that particular facet, he may also risk returning to the usual themes of war that have been exhausted already. Nevertheless, Miracle at St. Anna, with Lee’s particular brand of snapshot film-making, looks enticing.

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The epic is dead. At least for Hollywood it is. Long gone are the days of The English Patient. If Cold Mountain was a sign of interest wavering, Kingdom of Heaven and Alexander showed that people were getting tired of swords, sandals, and sand. Even the excellent The Assassination of Jesse James, epic at least in its running time and cinematography, was a bit of a box-office disaster. But is there life outside of Hollywood? The glorious trailers of Mongol, the biopic of Genghis Khan, suggested that there very well may be, but did the film live up to its expectations?

Genghis Khan was once known as Temudgin, son of a local tribe leader. Khan was brought to a nearby village of his father’s enemies to make piece by having young Temudgin marry one of their daughters. However, Temudgin displays his stubbornness by picking a girl from a nearer village, which results in a rather unhappy fate for the boy’s father and family. Temudgin spends much of his life running from his new enemy, one of his father’s tribesmen Targutai. Temudgin grows up fast when living in a land where Mongols are not living by etiquette, and when his bride is kidnapped, he convinces his blood brother Jamuqa. But differences in attitude causes the two to be split apart, ending in further misery for Temudgin, as he is imprisoned once again, giving him time to decide on his future: to unite the Mongolian tribes and honour the ancient way of living.

This all sounds pretty far from the traditional image we have of Khan: as a barbarian. This Western image is not quite replicated in the East, where Khan is seen as more of a hero, perhaps in a similar light to Alexander the Great. Read on »

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Just when you thought the tension had eased after the war of words between George Clooney and Charlton Heston, or Uwe Boll and everyone, the stage has been set for the battle between legendary actor/director Clint Eastwood, and legendary director Spike Lee.

It all started in Cannes this year, in which Spike Lee (who directed classics such as Do the Right Thing and Malcolm X) was promoting the forthcoming WWII movie Miracle at St. Anna, concerning four African-American soldiers trapped behind enemy lines in Italy. On the subject, Lee criticised Eastwood’s two war film Letters from Iwo Jima, and Flags of Our Fathers, for not representing any of the African-American soldiers who fought in the battle of Iwo Jima. “It was a conscious decision [by Eastwood] not to have any black people”.

Eastwood responded in an interview with UK newspaper The Guardian, and he was not a happy camper. Eastwood said that Flags of Our Fathers was about the men who raised the flag for that iconic picture and that ” [the African-American contingent] didn’t do that. If I go ahead and put an African-American actor in there, people’d go, ‘This guy’s lost his mind.’ I mean, it’s not accurate.” Eastwood’s last words on the subject were “A guy like him should shut his face”.

Them’s fighting words, and Lee promptly responded to ABC News: “the man is not my father and we’re not on a plantation [.....] come on Clint, come on. He sounds like an angry old man right there”. Lee denied that he suggested that the true story of Flags of our Fathers should be rewritten to feature an African-American character, and “It’s just that there’s not one black in either film. And because I know my history, that’s why I made that observation.”

Personally, I think the situation has been blown out of porportion. Lee has a certain point in that there are no black actors to be seen in Flags (Letters from Iwo Jima is told from the Japanese side), but would their inclusion as essentially extras in the background have made much of a difference? Lee was really making a statement on Hollywood’s depictions of WWII as inaccurate, but to be honest, what does he expect? You can’t get much further from the truth than Hollywood films. Which is why it will be very interesting to see how Miracle at St. Anna fares when it is released in September.

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"Tropic Thunder" looks like a funny movie. Just watch the trailer. Tom Cruise has a cameo appearance as a fat, bald film producer of some sort. It's all rumored, but should prove fruitful at the movie theaters.

"Thunder" stars Robert Downy, Jr., Ben Stiller, Nick Nolte and Jack Black.

The opening day is August 15th.

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With the New Year well underway, and with all of us nursing our minds and livers back to health after the holidays, many of the supposedly reputable mags, rags, and blogs, have been filling their pages with lists. The Top 5 this, the Top 5 that, an endless way to create content without really having to do something new, instead regurgitating material already covered throughout the year. But hey, we all love it, and I’m guilty of that very sin myself! Empire Magazine, the UK-based film magazine, has gone Top 5 crazy with this article. There’s some very amusing contributions, though, such as Worst Lines of Dialogue (”I smell you, boy”, courtesy of Transformers), Best Laughs, and Best Good Bits in Bad Films. It also draws attention to something great qualities in not-so-great movies, such as Sunshine’s visual effects.

Naturally, there’s going to be agreement and disagreement. Personally, I felt the beach tracking shot in Atonement is undeserved as a good scene. While technically impressive, it actually drew your attention away from the horrors of war and to the sweeping beauty of cinematic techniques.  It’s actually the opposite to what Spielberg achieved in the opening minutes of Saving Private Ryan.

Regardless, it’s a nice, fluffy feature that’s worth checking out in its entirety.

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Ahh, 2007 is almost over, and what it year it was, from disappearing British children to protesting Monks, from Greek and California fires to Sarkozky to the 7 New Wonders of the World, it’s been a blast. But what about the year in film? Personally, I’ve been gently disappointed in that no single film has blown me way (unlike last year’s Pan’s Labyrinth, United 93, Borat, etc), although it has been a consistently good year. Below of five of the films I consider to be the best, although bear in mind that over here in Ireland we’re yet to receive Award favourites such as No Country For Old Men, There Will Be Blood, and so on. And since I’m a wannabe critic (a job which requires 50% analysis, and 50% bitterness), I also included the 3 biggest let-downs of the year. Enjoy!

FIVE OF THE BEST

Knocked Up

Judd Apatow came from nowhere to astound me with The 40-Year Old Virgin, an endearing and hilarious film which had a quality joke per scene, which very few films can boast. His follow-up is this rom-com about a young, directionless, man who has a one-night stand with a confident, sexy career gal. While not all jokes work, Seth Rogan and Katherine Heigl are real yet adorable enough to sympathise with both sides, while getting a few good gags on the side. And like Apatow’s previous movie, I suspect Knocked Up will warrant repeated viewing.

Zodiac

David Fincher’s return to cinema has been widely anticipated, but the wait was worth it. Zodiac is more than a serial-killer flick. Instead, Fincher turns into a drama about the obsession with mystery. Jake Gyllenhaal is excellent as the newspaper illustrator who cracks one of the codes left by the San Francisco based murderer, and when everyone else gave up, he became the authority on the topic. The film perfectly captures the frenzy and armchair excitement that all of us experience when we get sucked in by an unsolved issue. Read on »

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With the sad demise of Norman Mailer, one of America’s most important writers, comes the news that one of his novels will be coming to us via the silver screen….. again. Dark Horizons reported this week that the author’s son, John, has released the rights to adapt The Naked and the Dead. The 1948 novel was a landmark in writing, being one of the first honest accounts of life in the Second World War. The novel was adapted into a 1958 film version, and was generally considered to be a forgettable, sanitised version of the powerful story.

The novel deals with a reconnaissance platoon of US soldiers based in the South Pacific. It depicts the difficult lives of the soldiers and officers involved, and manages to create rich characters, often telling the history of a character through a key flashback- a device you will recognise from Lost.

The only problem with making a film of The Naked and the Dead, is that while it can be commended for being the first, and one of the most effective war novels, war movies have raided its insight for quite a while. Now, the war movie has been done to death, ranging from the frivolous (Pearl Harbour) to the profound (Apocalypse Now). A film adaption of the great novel simply can’t be great, due to the genre having been exhausted since.

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<br>Hollywood is being inundated with war movies at the moment, with film-makers starting to deal with 9-11 and its aftermath. The only problem is that almost all are disappointing in the box office, with films like The Kingdom, In the Valley of Elah, and Rendition, all underperforming to audiences who are more interested in The Game Plan or Tyler Perry. However, if there’s one film to break this curse, it’s Charlie Wilson’s War.

Based on a true story, the film concerns the attempts of one man, a wealthy Texan congressman, who funded a CIA covert operation to aid Afghanistan in its war against the imposing Soviet Union.

It won’t be the cast of money-magnets Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts (with support from the excellent Philip Seymour Hoffman) that will ensure this film’s box office, and award ceremony, success, but rather its distinct tone. The trailer above, for example, has wisely focused on the humour of the situation, contrasting with the drabness of the other films mentioned above. It almost feels like a sitcom at times, with some quick jabs at government competance and foreign cultures. It will be interesting to see how the film delves into the motivations of Wilson (was he a patriot fighting the “Red Threat”, or was he interested in oil?), as well as how deep the critique of the US government is (including comparisons with its present state). With a director as diverse and as erratic as Mike Nichols (The Graduate, Catch 22, Closer, and What Planet are you From?), this film could either be a frivilous mess of a drama, or the best war film of the year.

Charlie Wilson’s War hits the US on Christmas Day, and storms through Europe from January.

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Magnolia Pictures will be offering a sneak preview of the war documentary film REDACTED on Nov 1, 2007.

Renowned film director Brian de Palma, of Scarface and The Untouchables, brings to you a vivid story of a group of American soldiers stationed in a checkpoint deep in Iraq. This film attempts to illuminate how the current conflict has deeply affected US soldiers in their every day encounter with the Iraqi people.

Brian de Palma’s style of blending video diaries, documentaries, surveillance footage, online testimonials, and news pieces is sure to give you a truly unique cinematic experience.

REDACTED premiers in NY theaters this coming Nov 16, 2007.

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Rambo, a saga of popular action films, which is by the way one of my favorite action movie ever, is having a fourth film to be released on January 25th, 2008. This news came as a surprise for me as I thought they wouldn’t do another one. Oh well, I guess Hollywood is really hard pressed in finding good stories to make into movies these days.

But nevertheless, I am still curious with this fourth installment. So I scoured around and found this synopsis in the web, released by Lionsgate. By the way, the movie will be called “Rambo: To Hell and Back.”

If anyone can remember, Rambo movies are often praised for their themes of the individual’s struggle to regain acceptance in society, and the ethical limit of retaliation against the unjust state; these themes are often obscured by the violence of the pictures, though they were all financially successful.

Anyway, here is the synopsis:

Twenty years after the last film in the series, John Rambo (SYLVESTER STALLONE) has retreated to northern Thailand, where he’s running a longboat on the Salween River. On the nearby Thai-Burma (Myanmar) border, the world’s longest-running civil war, the Burmese-Karen conflict, rages into its 60th year. But Rambo, who lives a solitary, simple life in the mountains and jungles fishing and catching poisonous snakes to sell, has long given up fighting, even as medics, mercenaries, rebels and peace workers pass by on their way to the war-torn region.

That all changes when a group of human rights missionaries search out the “American river guide” John Rambo. When Sarah (JULIE BENZ) and Michael Bennett (PAUL SCHULZE) approach him, they explain that since last year’s trek to the refugee camps, the Burmese military has laid landmines along the road, making it too dangerous for overland travel. They ask Rambo to guide them up the Salween and drop them off, so they can deliver medical supplies and food to the Karen tribe. After initially refusing to cross into Burma, Rambo takes them, dropping off Sarah, Michael and the aid workers…

Less than two weeks later, pastor Arthur Marsh (KEN HOWARD) finds Rambo and tells him the aid workers did not return and the embassies have not helped locate them. He tells Rambo he’s mortgaged his home and raised money from his congregation to hire mercenaries to get the missionaries, who are being held captive by the Burmese army. Although the United States military trained him to be a lethal super soldier in Vietnam, decades later Rambo’s reluctance for violence and conflict are palpable, his scars faded, yet visible. However, the lone warrior knows what he must do…

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The Kingdom is a film that has been receiving some of the most mixed reviews in quite some time. And when I say mixed, I mean close to diametrically opposed. Some adore the film, such as Empire Magazine, who call it a “heart-pounding drama”. Then there are those who hate it, for diametrically opposed reason once again. The Asia Times call the film a “cult of FBI-worship” with its “Saudi bashing”, yet Box Office Mojo claim that the film “offers more of the same anti-Americanism made by and for Americans” and that it infers that “America caused and deserved mass murder”. There’s even posts like this appearing on IMDB. There hasn’t been a film as controversial as this in quite some time, so naturally I was curious.

The plot is based on the true bombings of a US complex in Saudi Arabia in 2003 and an oil company in 1996. Here, Islamic terrorists infiltrate an American compound and gun down families, while also planting a devastating bomb. The FBI are determined to investigate, despite political tension forcing the US government to stand back. Frustrated, Special Agent Flury manages to blackmail his way into the country, assembling his crack team of experts to spend the five days given to them to find the culprits involved.

After watching the film, I was disappointed to discover that The Kingdom instilled neither hatred nor joy in myself. Read on »

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Wesley Snipes out, Derek Luke in. News has surfaced stating that Derek Luke has replaced Wesley Snipes in a lead role in “Miracle at St. Anna.” In the report, Snipes withdrew from the project as it became more and more difficult for him to leave the US while facing federal tax-fraud charges.

Luke will join actors such as John Turturro, James Gandolfini, Michael Ealy, Omar Benson and Tory Kittles in this WWII drama that Spike Lee is directing in Italy. Luke played an Army Ranger in Afghanistan in the Robert Redford-directed “Lions for Lambs.”

Luke will play one of four members of the U.S. Army’s all-black 92nd Division who get separated from their squad behind enemy lines. The soldiers, bitter about racism and the feeling that their own government treats its enemy better than it does them, finds humanity in the small Tuscan village of St. Anna. James McBride wrote the script.

Luke, who made his starring debut in the title role of “Antwone Fisher,” just completed the ensemble romantic comedy “Definitely, Maybe.”

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Redacted is a feature film written and directed by Brian De Palma that premiered at the 2007 Venice Film Festival, where it earned a Silver Lion “best director” award. But for those who missed it, there’s still some chance as the award winning film will be shown at the prestigious New York Film Festival on Wednesday, October 10th and Thursday, October 11th. But if you miss that event, your last chance will be when it opens in New York on November 16th.

Redacted is a fictional story inspired by true events. It is a unique cinematic experience that will force viewers to radically reconsider the filters through which we see and accept events in our world, the power of the mediated image and how presentation and composition influence our ideas and beliefs.

Centered around a small group of American soldiers stationed at a checkpoint in Iraq, Redacted alternates points of view, balancing the experiences of these young men under duress and members of the media with those of the local Iraqi people, illuminating how each have been deeply affected by the current conflict and their encounters with each other.

The film is scheduled for a limited release in the U.S. in November 2007 and another limited release in the U.S. in late 2007. The producers feel it may be more successful in Europe than the United States. The film was shot in Jordan.

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Union Station Home Entertainment is going to releaseon DVD this coming October 16, the movie “The Other Conquest.” The Other Conquest is written and directed by Salvador Carrasco and produced by Alvaro Domingo. Legendary tenor Plácido Domingo is executive producer and is featured on the soundtrack singing an aria composed especially for the movie. Heading the picture’s international cast are Damián Delgado (Men with Guns), Elpidia Carrillo (Tortilla Heaven), José Carlos Rodríguez and Iñaki Aierra.

The film, a boldly imaginative and affecting story of faith and courage, is set during the November 8, 1519 invasion of Spanish Conqueror Hernando Cortés. His small rode into the Aztec capital of the vast Mexican Empire, where they were welcomed by the Emperor Moctezuma. Within two years, the Aztec civilization was in a state of orphanage, the survivors having lost their families, homes, language, temples… and Gods.

For those history buffs and overall interested in the film itself, you can check out their trailer found here.

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O Jerusalem is a film directed by Elie Chouraqui and starring JJ Feild and Saïd Taghmaoui. It’s based on a novel of the same name, written by Elie Chouraqui and Didier Le Pêcheur. It was produced for US Distribution by Jeffrey Konvitz. In part of the film’s release, an official trailer has been given to us. If interested, you can download it here.

As mentioned, the film is based on a novel of the same name. The book is the result of five years of research by the authors, which also included several thousand interviews, and examination of a series of publicly available documents and relevant materials. These became the basic materials for presenting the story of the birth of the modern state of Israel.

Two Americans, one Jewish, the other Arab, are friends. As the United Nations votes for the creation of the state of Israel, both are pulled into conflict, their involvement taking them from New York City to Jerusalem, where they risk their lives for what they each believe in.

O Jerusalem! endeavors to present events from all the sides who were parties to the conflict and the events which are the subject matter of the book: the Jews, from the simple soldiers and rabbinical students to the commanders like Ben Gurion and Golda Meir; the Arabs; and the British.

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After messing up with “Swept Away” and “Revolver,” Guy Richie is on the move to direct yet another film. This time, its a remake for the classic “The Dirty Dozen.” This news has been reported as one of the pre-strike (Writers Guild, Directors Guild and Screen Actors Guild strike next year) productions that studios are making a priority of.

For those familiar, and of course, action/war movie enthusiasts, knows that the film is from a 1967 World War II action-war movie directed by Robert Aldrich, which in turn is from the novel by E.M. Nathanson. The 1967 film featured Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, Telly Savalas, Charles Bronson and Jim Brown.

Though ostensibly about World War II, the story deals with contemporary 1967 themes of individualism vs. collectivism, cultural relativism, internal and external racism, and their meanings within patriotism and duty in war.

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Oliver Stone is set to bring the Vietnam War back into the limelight with the production of his latest film, Pinkville. Based on a true story, the film will tell the tale of real-life General William R. Peers who investigated the infamous 1968 My Lai Massacre of Vietnamese civilians, during which 300 to 500 people, including mostly women, children, and the elderly were killed by U.S. soldiers.

So far Bruce Willis and Channing Tatum are due to star in the film, and the studio is currently in talks with Michael Pena. Willis play General Peers, and Tatum will play Hugh Thompson Jr., an army helicopter pilot who helped stop the killings by flying between the attackers and the My Lai villagers. Pena will play Captain Ernest Medina, the officer in charge of commanding the troops who was charged for the massacre, but later found to be not guilty.

This film will no doubt strike a chord with soldiers currently embroiled in the Iraq War, as well as both sides involved in the finished, but not forgotten, Vietnam conflict.

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Here’s a tip from an entertainment writer - you can always tell trouble when the article you’re reading seems visibly hesitant to reveal what exactly an actor, a director and/or a writer has done to him him or her a part.

That’s how it almost looked for Red Tails, the long-awaited Tuskegee Airman flick produced and financed by none other than George Lucas.

Lucas chose John Ridley for the task of screenwriter, after reading L.A. Riots, which Ridley wrote for Spike Lee, according to Variety.

A further look into IMBD reveals John Ridley also wrote the Internet Series, film story and animated series of Undercover Brother. That’s right, folks - the Undercover Brother guy is writing George Lucas’ next historical epic.

Read on »

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A new blog from Punisher director Lexi Alexander says new Punisher actor - Rome star Ray Stevenson - will be receiving major military training from several Marines of the company Gunmetal.

Said Alexander, “They are especially invested in making Frank Castle as authentic as possible, since historically, Castle was a Force Recon Marine.”

This is the one thing I never brought about the first one. With the exception of the deleted opening (which can be found in animated form on the first Punisher special edition DVD), Frank Castle’s military background is only vaguely hinted at, and largely supplemented with law enforcement background.

What the Punisher does to criminals however isn’t something you’d typically come across through years of law and order. In the comic books, Castle is already suffering from war-associated mental problems in the Vietnam prequel story Born.

The second Punisher, though devoid of Thomas Jane, seems to be more faithful to the comic book plotline, already bearing the name “Welcome Back, Frank.” This was ironically supposed to be the storyline of the first movie, but was mostly mangled in the screenwriting process.

Let’s hope the dark humor of the comics mixes well with the character already well-established in the first flick. Punisher 2 is set to be released sometime in 2008

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This past week, one of the new releases on DVD was a set of restored French films from director Raymond Bernard. Bernard’s 1934 version of Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables is now available in a three disc set with the 1932 anti-war film Wooden Crosses. The set is available from Eclipse, the new subsidiary of Criterion, which is offering no-frills DVDs of rare, older films.

Those who have seen the original film version of All Quiet on the Western Front may be especially interested in comparing Bernard’s film which was made shortly afterwards. The film follows a group of soldier in the front lines during World War I. They are all relatively young men who have left their respective lives to fight for France. Among the soldiers is a former law student and a pastry chef. Unlike his contemporary, Jean Renoir, Bernard shows the military as obliterating class distinctions.

One of the more intense scenes is of the soldiers in their underground bunker. Beneath them, they can hear German soldiers digging a tunnel. The soldiers are concerned about the possibllity of explosives planted beneath them. In the claustrophobic setting, not only are these soldiers concerned about fighting the Germans but keeping their wits about them.

Among the actors is Charles Vanel, who is noted as having one of the longest careers of any film actor, from the silent era in 1908 through 1988, one year before his death at age 96. Actor and theater theorist Antonin Artaud has a supporting role as one of the soldiers. Raymond Bernard’s career as a filmmaker spanned from 1917 through 1958.

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One of the more interesting films about World War II, Hell to Eternity recently received an overdue DVD release. This 1960 film is about War hero Guy Gabaldon, a young Marine from East Los Angeles, whose ability to speak Japanese made it possible to persuade almost one thousand Japanese soldiers to surrender at Saipan. The real Guy Gabaldon was a technical advisor on the film which he loved so much he even named one of his sons Jeffrey Hunter Gabaldon after the actor who portrays him.

An orphan at age twelve, Gabaldon was unofficially adopted by a Japanese-American family where he learned to speak Japanese. Gabaldon enlisted in the Marines in order to use his language skills on behalf of the U.S. war effort. For his heroism, Gabaldon was awarded the Navy Cross. The battle scenes were filmed on location in Okinawa.

What makes this film different is that it still remains one of the few to discuss the experience of Japanese-Americans assigned to internment camps during World War II. Racism in America is addressed without being the sole focus of the film. One of the continuing themes of Hell to Eternity is the concept of being “All-American”, which examined in such a way that the viewer may not always notice that stereotypes are being challenged or upended.

While Jeffrey Hunter was too old to portray Gabaldon, he is able to project intensity and inner torment as a person uncertain about going to war, going through personal trauma that maked him temporarily a killing machine. There is a Star Trek connection in that Hunter, who starred in the pilot for the series, shares the screen with George Takei, Star Trek’s Sulu. Fans of classic television may also enjoy seeing TV’s original “Fugitive”, with David Janssen as a Marine Sargeant. My biggest disappointment with this Warner Brothers DVD is that no one thought to have the real Guy Gabaldon provide a commentary track or interview. While much of Hell to Eternity takes place during World War II, not all of it is on the battle field. While there are elements to fault, this still remains a moving, and at times heart-breaking film.

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Rescue Dawn seems like another film in an already explored genre. However, this one has been made by German director Werner Herzog, and is a fictionalisation of his documentary Little Dieter Needs to Fly. But is that enough to set it aside from the array of films set around the Vietnam War? So far, there have been concerns about the film, with its release being continually pushed back (thought this is mostly due to the film’s crew not being paid), so are the bad omens prophetic?

The film follows Dieter, a German who became a citizen of the United States, and dedicated his life to becoming a pilot. And the Vietnam War provides the perfect opportunity to do so. Almost ignorant of the danger, Dieter flies out on a secret mission to bomb the Ho Chi Min trail, but ends up being shot down over Laos. He is taken by the Army of North Vietnam and placed in a makeshift POW camp along with several Americans and objectors to the war. As Dieter’s body becomes decimated from neglect, his mind remains strong as he hatches a plan to escape.

Read on »

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One of the few films anticipated this summer is neither a sequel nor big budget CGI driven movie. Werner Herzog, the German director, has a new film, Rescue Dawn, starring Christian Bale. This is Herzog’s most overtly commercial film since his version of Nosferatu, back in 1979. What makes Rescue Dawn a bit unusual is that the film is a fictionalized telling of the story of Navy pilot Dieter Dengler (seen above), the subject of Herzog’s 1997 documentary, Little Dieter Needs to Fly.

Dengler was a young boy who grew up in a small German village during World War II. In spite of the fact that his village was under attact by U.S. airmen, Dieter grew up with the dreams of wanting to go to America, and to be a pilot. Immigrating to the U.S. at age 18 by boat in 1956, he joined the Air Force, . . . where he stayed on the ground. It wasn’t until Dengler went to college and later enlisted in the Navy that he had his opportunity to be a pilot. Flying over Viet-Nam, Dengler thought of the war and the country in abstract terms until he was shot down and became a P.O.W.

Much of this documentary is of Dengler retracing his path from Laos, where he was imprisoned, through where he finally escaped. There is some re-enactment of some the torture that Dengler underwent as well as descriptions of what happened to him and the other prisoners he encountered. That Dengler was even rescued was something of an accident, when pilots flying overhead on another mission spotted the giant SOS made up of white cloth. Following his recovery and release from the Navy, Dengler went on to become a test pilot. Viewers of the DVD are advised to watch the film through to a special postscript following the credits, which is footage of Dengler full military funeral at Arlington National Cemetary. Dieter Dengler died on February 7, 2001.

Rescue Dawn is scheduled for release on July 4, a date somewhat ironic for a film about a former military man who did not think of himself as a hero. If Rescue Dawn fully illustrates Dengler’s story of survival under the worst conditions, expect the film to be quite harrowing. I imagine that Werner Herzog would think his documentary and his feature film will compliment each other. Even if there was no Rescue Dawn, Little Dieter needs to Fly is a film worth seeing as a picture about a man who maintained his dreams and ideals in the most difficult times.

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