THE DEFINITION OF THE AMERICAN SPIRIT

Recently, I've seen two movies that caused me lots of reflection. One is Sicko, the Michael Moore indictment of the country, and rightly so, of our despicable health care system. And, I don't care how you feel about Michael Moore, the facts, like Iraq, jump up and kick you in the posterior; 50 million Americans don't have health insurance. And, we are prisoners of the Health Care industry mainly because of gutless politicians and money. I came out of that movie saying WE CAN DO BETTER. Well, Rescue Dawn, shows us why we can do better. It is the epitome of the American Spirit.

Rescue Dawn is set in 1966: this is before the Vietnam war had jumped up and kicked us in the posterior. Here was young and cocky Dieter Dengler (Christian Bale, who was fabulous), German borne but American through and through. Rescue Dawn is really a character study or studies. A buddy of mine actually knew Dengler who died in 2001 in Mill Valley, California. He says that Dengler credits his very tough upbringing during WW ll to his capacity to survive.

Rescue Dawn is one of those uplifting movies that is destined to stick with you. It is harsh in terms of conditions and there are a few holes in the story but don't take away from the movie, i. e., what happened to the rest of the POWs who escaped with Dengler.

One gets the impression that these POWs held in Laos were not treated nearly as harsh as the Hanoi Hilton heroes like John McCain. It was tough though. Dengler had a terrific supporting cast. One, emaciated, already gone over the top and another who was precariously perched on the edge. For Dengler, as opposed to the rest, not escaping never even entered his mind.

What was fascinating to an audience, surely me, was the physical changes that we watched as Dengler and his cohorts moved through their meager and pitiful conditions: the sunken in cheeks, the emaciated looks, the obvious craziness that starving brings. It was only in reading about the making of the movie did I discover how it was done. It was filmed in reverse, meaning that they got the looks they wanted at the end and I guess inserted them in the movie at the right time. Genius, in film making, I think.

The director, Werner Herzog, has to be one of the best, merely for his versitility if for no other reason. Until I read that he had also done Grizzly Man, which is about the idiot who lived among the bears and they ate him--I had not realized that Herzog had made that documentary also.

I'm going to order the documentary made too by Herzog about Dengler, (Little Dieter Needs to Fly). I'd like to know more about Dengler, a true hero. In fact, when Dengler was being initially interrogated by an English speaking type, probably educated in the States, he is asked why he is bombing and doing these terrible things to these people. Dengler says something like, "I don't want to hurt anybody, I just wanted to fly."

There are some fascinating scenes in the movie, Dengler eating worms and maggots and making the experience like he's at a 4 Star restaurant. Whew! And, the best line of the movie spoken by another prisoner who simply could not grasp the idea of escape as they had already been there a year or so was, "The Jungle is the prison." I can tell you this is true from Vietnam. As a vet, I can remember being in an open space and then traveling a few miles (clicks) and you could easily be in triple thick jungle canopy where you couldn't see your hand in front of your face. In fact, I can remember spending hours helping carve out a landing zone in the jungle for helicopters: it was excruciatingly difficult, back breaking. So, escaping through it had to be a Herculean effort by Dengler.

A last thing. When the movie ended, it was unbelievably quiet. A mostly full theater and there was no talking, no usual comments, I put it as a reverent feeling. Not an easy movie to watch but a movie experience that sticks with you, very existential. Three parachutes, maybe 4.