– if the Oscar race were next week, Christian Bale would win for Best Actor with Steve Zahn as Best Supporting Actor. That’s how convincing and harrowing are the performances of two Prisoner(s)-of-war caught in Laos during the Viet Nam War. The odd thing about this movie, however, is that it feels like something the movie studio forgot to release back in the 1960s before such 1970s classics as “The Deer Hunter” or “Apocalypse Now” caught all the rave reviews. “Grizzly Man” director Werner Herzog – known for his career of pursuing characters out in the wild pitted against nature – shoots the movie on a grainy, anemic canvas, reminiscent of the look of Oliver Stone’s masterpiece “Platoon.” Christian Bale portrays (real life hero) Dieter Dengler, a German-born U.S. Navy Pilot who is shot down and held captive with four other men including Steve Zahn, with an incredible performance by Jeremy Davies who gives off all the right twitches and insanities of a man captured in the jungle for over two years. The simplicity of the storyline depicting the characters’ weaknesses, their fears and their dreams – of something as simple as a turkey sandwich and a beer – will have you on the edge of your seat, as you realize their only option is to risk escaping or die. Four Tiaras.
