Herzog already filmed the story of German-American Vietnam POW Dieter Dengler some 10 years earlier as a documentary. Perhaps the doom-mongering auteur felt the pull of the jungle again, after torturing countless film crews through the wilds for decades in epics of the man vs. nature genre, most notably Aguirre, Wrath of God or Fitzcarraldo, both featuring his screen incarnation Klaus Kinski. And perhaps Herzog saw in Christian Bale's obsessive devotion to his roles, at least in terms of Method-bodily mortification (e.g. The Machinist), finally an actual Hollywood name who'd wrack himself to whatever extremes required in the name of authenticity.
It's a pity to have been in the same place in a fictional form with The Deer Hunter and to constantly have to remind oneself that this is the real deal. At least, for the most part, the way that the dialogue has been kept naturalistic and Dengler's character is given no enlightened or heroic polish for the sake of drama is effective and allows full immersion into the quandaries of the escape story. Odd, then that what actually shocks the most, after all the eating of live maggots and mental disintegration, is the gung-ho ending, as if pasted on from another movie.
5/10
No comments:
Post a Comment