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Re: *** Official RESCUE DAWN Discussion Thread
The documentary that Werner Herzog made about Dieter Dengler does clarify a few things. The ending is apparently true, which makes its re-enactment at the end of Rescue Dawn a mixture of surrealism and documentary recreation. I think to get hung up on the film as some sort of formulaic approach to POW films that just missed its beats would be unfair. If anything the matter of fact crash and minimal development leading to that scene show that Herzog's real interest lies solely with the effects on the human psyche that such an event would render on an individual. As represented by the three prisoners, one mad, the other given up on life, and Dengler relying on his own resources to make an escape happen, whether the film renders accurate portraits of the real life counterparts, is missing the point for Herzog. Though to try and intellectualize a Herzog film is a tricky thing, they almost always work on some kind of subliminal level (at first, though methods can be found as ive watched Grizzly Man a number of times and find its structure quite amazing.) That said I was somewhat overwhelmed by the ending and found it to be completely satisfying, repeat viewing are a worthwhile endeavor.
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