Rescue Dawn (Blu-ray)

Rescue Dawn pairs up two people that for me spell box office gold, the magnificent Christian Bale who seems to only appear in quality productions and now for over 20 years, and freaky German director Werner Herzog who has in the past gone as far as hypnotising his cast for a movies duration in order to achieve his desired look. Then of course the revival of a genre that although 20 years ago generated movies at the rate of 10 a penny has been little seen since, The Vietnam War. Lt. Dieter Dengler (Christian Bale) wanted nothing more than to fly, so much so in order to follow his dream he enlists in the US Navy as a fighter pilot, in doing so he allows ...

(Also appears at ShaunMunro.co.uk) Director: Werner Herzog Cast: Christian Bale, Zach Grenier, Steve Zahn, Release Date: July 4th, 2007 (US), November 23rd, 2007 (UK) Certificate: PG-13 (US), 12A (UK) The opening scene of "Rescue Dawn" reminds us that Werner Herzog is an artisan of the aesthetic - his slow-motion shot of a plane soaring over a vast, plush landscape as explosions canvas the ground is poetic in very much the same way as the credit overlay in Apocalypse Now was. For all of Rescue Dawn's blemishes, Herzog's keen eagle eye for visuals cannot be faulted. Revisiting the central motif of his film Grizzly ...

Many people in the modern world are cynical about war. WW2 was something that most people could agree on - the likes of Hitler were not nice people. However, is war ever this clean cut? Saddam was also an evil man, but did America invade Iraq to get rid of this tin pot dictator or for its rich oil fields? War is a confusing thing with both sides being shades of grey rather than black or white. America should have perhaps thought more deeply before going into Iraq; had they not learnt from Vietnam? Here was a war about Communism, but were the Vietcong really that evil and why did the Americans insist on infiltrating neighbouring countries illegally? 'Rescue Dawn' ...