rt house icon Werner Herzog continues to hear the call of the jungle, with Christian Bale ("Batman Returns") in tow; this time to the jungles of Thailand with Rescue Dawn. Tagged by some as Herzog’s first “Hollywood” movie, this film attempts to recreate the harrowing tale of a German national turned U.S. Navy pilot Dieter Dengler.

After his plane is downed during a secret bombing mission on the Ho Chi Minh Trail, the young Navy pilot is captured and held under horrendous conditions by Viet Cong-sympathizing irregulars. Despite torture, he refuses to sign a statement condemning the U.S. As a result, he is thrown into a tiny, remote POW camp, where most are thought to never come back.

There, he meets two fellow Americans, Duane (Steve Zahn) and Gene (Jeremy Davies), as well as three Southeast Asian prisoners, Y.C. (Galen Yuen), Phisit (Abhujati Jusakul) and Procet (Chaiyan Chunsuttiwat). The military wasn't supposed to be operating in Laotian air space, which means that Lieutenant Dengler's prospects for release is nil, as the U.S. government could not officially acknowledge his presence there.

So, as days turn into weeks, and weeks into months, Dengler turns his hopes to a far-fetched escape plan that he and the other inmates prepare for daily. Relying on tricks he acquired as a tool-and-die worker in Germany, Dengler and the other POW's succeed in their escape and each goes their own way, with exception to Dengler and Duane, who partner up in their trial through the jungle.