Rescue Dawn

Little Dieter Needs to Fly, a documentary by Werner Herzog tell us the life of Dieter Dengler a pilot of the U.S. Navy whose plane was shot down while carrying secret bombing mission over the Laos territory. The documentary itself then became the background of Rescue Dawn, also directed by Werner Herzog, and starring Christian Bale as Lt. Dieter Dengler.


The first minute of the movie show us, Dieter and his squadron of 4 men, take on mission to do a bombing run within Laos territory. Dieter's plane rolled in and quickly lost sight of others. After done the bombing his plane got hit by anti-aircraft gun. He was told to eject but he refused it. Soon he found himself deep within Laos territory with the rebels in pursuit. Not long after that, he got caught and taken to a Lao prison camp. He then met with fellow prisoner, Duane Martin (Steve Zahn), Eugene DeBruin (Jeremy Davies) together with Thai prisoners.


In the first hour of the movie, which run for 125 mins., the psychology of prisoner of war was greatly shown by Herzog. How they're starving, they're planning an escape plan, also how desperate the situation is. And it's not like the other U.S. anti-Vietkong proganda movie like Rambo and Missing In Action, Rescue Dawn shows the real deal. Christian Bale and Steve Zahn also managed to optimized their talent.


But then again it's not a perfect movie, because in some point this film add more things and also subtract some of it historical element. Like the Walkie-Talkie character which is not a real one, or the fact that the other prisoner already planned an escape before Dieter's arrival. But Herzog did exceptionally works here, and this film deserve praises.

The Hurt Locker

"The rush of battle is a potent and often lethal addiction, for war is a drug." Chris Hedges' quote open the movie. A perfectly done movie for me. Yes, I really mean it, it is a perfect movie. With this, Kathryn Bigelow should earn at least, Academy Awards for Best Picture. And first maybe there's a lot of question in your head when you see the quote at the beginning of the movie. But it will make sense in the end.

You'll be dragged into the midst of the Baghdad's hottest zone in the 131 minutes of running time. The scene open with an adrenaline rush as they brought you to a 3-man bomb squad that is assigned to defuse a bomb in the middle of the street. A bomb defusal robot come with a couple of explosive carried on a wagon. Suddenly, the wheel went off. So, the leader of the team, Sgt. Matt Thompson (Guy Pearce) decided to put on his bomb suit and try to disarm it himself. Specialist Owen Elridge (Brian Geraghty) move quickly to cover his team leader, while Sgt. JT Sanborn (Anthony Mackie) keep communicate with Thompson. When Thompson finally reach the bomb, Elridge noticed a man with cellphone at the butcher shop nearby, when he try to tell Thompson about it, it's too late, the man pressed the cellphone and BOOM! an explosion occurred. The heart-pumping scene soon continue to Sanborn putting a dog tag inside a coffin named Sgt. Matt Thompson.

All of the things happen in the first 15 minutes, and Bigelow managed to keep the momentum to make you feel the emotional feeling of the bomb squad in Iraq. And also with the bomb squad new cowboy leader, SSgt. William James (Jeremy Renner) even inside the green zone, you can feel the intensity of the war. All of the cast, including Guy Pearce and Ralph Fiennes, deliver a wonderful performance.

Finally, I couldn't say anything except, you must watch The Hurt Locker. It's definitely a winner.