“Packs a wrenching emotional punch.” - Variety Rescue Dawn is Werner Herzog's second homage to German born, US Air Force pilot Dieter Dengler who was shot down during the Vietnam War and forced to overcome imprisonment and the wilds of the Vietnamese jungle. The first was the 1997 documentary Little Dieter Needs to Fly. On this occasion, Herzog transforms the documentary into an intense dramatisation starring Christian Bale.Bale immerses himself in the role of the tortured flyboy, Dengler, the first American prisoner to escape the Laotian communists. Pay close attention to the final scene - an ironic comment on the Hollywood happy ending. Werner Herzog's The Wild Blue Yonder featured at MIFF 06. Herzog is noted for such classics as Aguirre: Wrath of God and Fitzcarraldo.