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Reviews provided by RottenTomatoes
Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: An odd but vivid and compelling mixture of big-movie showmanship and eccentric vision. Read more
Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: Its tone is reflective, not combative, and it operates on a lulling rhythm, so that the jungles become either mesmerizing or a narcotic, depending on your blood sugar. Read more
David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: The film, Rescue Dawn, is so good it makes you wish that [director Werner] Herzog had gone Hollywood earlier in his career. Read more
J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: Like much of Herzog's work, it's essentially apolitical, focusing on a man at war with his environment -- and no one plunges into the foliage like he does. Read more
Scott Tobias, AV Club: [Bale and Zahn lend] this more or less conventional POW escape film resounding emotional depth. Read more
Randy Cordova, Arizona Republic: ... everything about Rescue Dawn feels real ... Read more
Ty Burr, Boston Globe: Those coming to Rescue Dawn cold will probably accept it as a straightforward, even predictable account of POW suffering, and they'll hang on Bale's muscular portrayal of a man who refuses to say die. Read more
Carina Chocano, Los Angeles Times: Aside from a riveting adventure story that Herzog tells in all of its terrifying, stripped-down simplicity, Rescue Dawn is a fascinating study of human particularity. Read more
Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: Although nothing beats seeing and hearing the real story, Herzog has done a fairly compelling job of blending staged action with docudrama authenticity. Read more
Michael Booth, Denver Post: That heart-stopping beginning tells us Herzog is again in top form, richly depicting the true story of the only American POW known to have escaped from Laotian captivity. Read more
Tom Long, Detroit News: Takes what could have been a mundane if well-made war story into something greater -- more harrowing, more hungry and more human. Read more
Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: But just as exciting -- maybe even more so, for those who love the medium and, especially, the uplift of the great-escape genre -- Rescue Dawn is a triumphant Werner Herzog movie. Read more
Jonathan F. Richards, Film.com: Herzog builds this movie around another strong, eccentric performance from Bale, who is gaining a reputation for outsized talent and for downsized physicality. Read more
Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press: The performances here are as excellent as they are unnerving. Read more
Mario Tarradell, Dallas Morning News: Rescue Dawn avoids all the land mines inherent in most war movies. There's no hero worship; no noisy, confusing, special-effects-enhanced battle scene. Read more
Scott Foundas, L.A. Weekly: The canniness of Bale's performance (which may be the best of his young but brilliant career) is that he plays Dengler as a fundamentally kind and simple yet rather ingenious man -- a cross between MacGyver and Candide. Read more
Jan Stuart, Newsday: If you know the original, then you may receive this gripping and faithful dramatization as a kind of cinematic experiment in the relative merits of the spoken word vs. the illustrated. Read more
David Ansen, Newsweek: As taut and exciting as many edge-of-your-seat Hollywood escape movies. Read more
Anthony Lane, New Yorker: [Rescue Dawn] offers its own vision of deprivation but doesn't linger long enough, even mid-jungle, to leave us in the kind of directionless trance that was conjured by Aguirre and Every Man for Himself. Read more
Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: In its study of an American pilot, surviving only because of his single-minded obsession with staying alive, Rescue Dawn is compelling and dramatic and emotional. Read more
Bob Mondello, NPR.org: Rescue Dawn may not feel much like a Herzog movie, but it's a gripping real-life thriller. Read more
Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: Problematic is Herzog's wildly romanticized view of his protagonist. No matter what tortures he faces, Dieter never has a moment of vulnerability. He's not a man, he's a superhero. Read more
Kyle Smith, New York Post: What a sweet collision is Rescue Dawn: the American psycho meets the German kook. Read more
Rex Reed, New York Observer: A potentially commercial audience-pleaser that retains all of the characteristic Herzog complexity and nuance, Rescue Dawn is an electrifying action adventure that clamps your nerves with jaws of steel. Read more
Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: Perhaps if [director Herzog] had tossed in a few Chevys that transform into robots, the studio would have given him the cash to make Rescue Dawn definitive, instead of generic, which is the best he manages here. Read more
Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: If Rescue Dawn isn't about heroism, then it's about something deeper, more primitive: survival instinct. Read more
James Berardinelli, ReelViews: With its high level of verisimilitude, unhurried pace, and stretches of tension, Rescue Dawn represents a solid effort from Herzog that fans of the genre should actively seek out. Read more
Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times: Herzog makes no attempt to pump this story up into a thrilling adventure. There is nothing thrilling about dysentery, starvation, insect bites and despair. Read more
Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: Werner Herzog is finally unveiling the first American narrative feature of his long career. As any Herzog fan would expect, it's an odd and thrilling mixture, and I can't imagine a better Fourth of July present to his adopted country. Read more
Walter V. Addiego, San Francisco Chronicle: Herzog aims this genre effort at a broader audience than he usually gets, and he does so without losing his soul. It's a remarkably straightforward tale that allows the director to dwell on obsessions familiar to those who know his work. Read more
Dana Stevens, Slate: If you're looking for a weekend movie that's heart-stoppingly suspenseful and inspiring, as well as brainy, funny, and strange, seek out Rescue Dawn. Read more
Cliff Froehlich, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Although the film delivers the expected action and efficiently jacks up the suspense, longtime devotees of the director will undoubtedly miss the visionary qualities that have long distinguished his work. Read more
Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: The whole last act is, to borrow a Martin Amis phrase, a losing war against cliche. Read more
Bruce Demara, Toronto Star: Workmanlike and watchable, Rescue Dawn is nonetheless a disappointment in its depiction of a hero with plenty of scars but little depth or substance beyond an iron will. Read more
Leslie Felperin, Variety: This polished, cleanly made pic still packs a wrenching emotional punch and, if backed by critics and auds, could earn more for Herzog than his last 10 features put together. Read more
J. Hoberman, Village Voice: As conventionally framed and lit as it is, Rescue Dawn is the closest thing to a 'real' movie that Herzog has ever made. Read more
Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: That such a masterful depiction of American heroism and can-do spirit has been created by a German art film director known for considerably darker visions of obsession is an irony Herzog no doubt finds delicious. Read more