77
Metascore
36 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 90The Hollywood ReporterKirk HoneycuttThe Hollywood ReporterKirk HoneycuttChristian Bale plays Dieter Dengler and this is one of the actor's most complex and compelling performances.
- 90Los Angeles TimesCarina ChocanoLos Angeles TimesCarina ChocanoAside 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.
- Their bond lends this more or less conventional POW escape film resounding emotional depth.
- 80NewsweekDavid AnsenNewsweekDavid AnsenAs taut and exciting as many edge-of-your-seat Hollywood escape movies.
- 70New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinNew York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinThe film, Rescue Dawn, is so good it makes you wish that Herzog had gone Hollywood earlier in his career. His pet theme is here: man tested against nature, his sanity more precarious than his body.
- 70The New YorkerAnthony LaneThe New YorkerAnthony LaneThere is honor, boldness, and grip in the new movie, but other directors can deliver those. Werner Herzog is the last great hallucinator in cinema, so why break the spell?
- 70Village VoiceJ. HobermanVillage VoiceJ. HobermanRescue Dawn is the closest thing to a "real" movie that Herzog has ever made. The lone conquistador has joined the club. Rescue Dawn is a Rambo movie without the Man (who, if I remember my Rambology, was himself of German descent).
- 70L.A. WeeklyScott FoundasL.A. WeeklyScott FoundasThe 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.
- 63New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanNew York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanThere is a great movie in Werner Herzog's Vietnam saga, Rescue Dawn. Unfortunately, it's about 30 minutes long.
- 63USA TodayUSA TodayThis is all about escape. And as prison-break movies go, Rescue ranks among the best.