Christian Bale plays Dieter Dengler, a German-born American fighter pilot shot down in his first mission early in the Vietnam War. Captured by the Viet Cong, Dengler immediately began plotting his escape along with other prisoners. Bale and other cast members, including Steve Zahn, lost a lot of weight to lend credibility to the conditions portrayed. The treatment by the Vietnamese is cruel, but is only shown enough to make that point. Nor is the film about politics. Director Werner Herzog, who profiled Dengler in a 1998 documentary, keeps the focus on his subject’s mixture of optimism and practical skills that allowed him to persevere. It’s a good story well told, and Bale brings a lot of personality to the role.
IMDB link
reviewed 12/13/07; viewed 12/08/07 on an airplane screen with bad sound; my rating may have been higher had I seen it in a theater
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