this is probably the most accessible Werner Herzog movie yet, but there was still a lot of mind fuckery and intimidating & breathtaking shots of the jungle and what not. could be bent by any patriotic or hawkish nut to be a jingoist flick though i don't see it that way because it's based on a real life dude (dieter dengler) and his story made for a good flick. highly recommended, very suspenseful and intense, but not humorless and probably the closest thing to a popcorn flick werner herzog is going to make.um, here is a picture of werner with an AK47
i don't know why i find it so hilarious
edith head
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ironically, heart of glass recently hit the top of my netflix queue and i rewatched it this evening. i appreciated it a great deal more the second time around.
Acting is great too. But for anyone who has already seen it, (Possible Spoiler) What about the last frame? What the hell was that about. Very Top Gunesque.
yeah, but this movie was based on Dieter Dengler who Herzog did a documentary on in 97 called Little Dieter Needs to Fly and that's how he described it
i thought christian bale was pretty good despite picking up on some accent issues near the beginning
according to the review in the new yorker this film was made in part by TOP GUN PRODUCTIONS.
Yeah, I'm not talking about the last scene, which I thought was very moving, just the last (Again Spoiler) freeze frame. Just thought it was an odd choice and kind of hackneyed. It really didn't detract from the movie for me tho.
Ahhh! It all makes sense now.
http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/04/24/060424fa_fact_zalewski
Basically, Herzog's trying to make the movie the way he usually works. Meanwhile, the producer, who just wanted a Vietnam-POW action flick with a major star made for cheap and doesn't give a fuck who the director is, sits Herzog down to watch The Rundown starring The Rock to show Herzog how the movie should me made -- at the same time that crew members gripe about how Werner Herzog's unprofessional and doesn't know how to direct a film.
Despite all that, the film turned out very well, and it definitely has Herzog's signature all over it. That said, the very end left me feeling a little non-plussed.
****************SPOILERS*********************
The intro to the film makes it clear that Herzog vehemently disapproves of U.S. involvement in Vietnam, but once he gets that out of the way, I think he wanted to make a film that honors the traits he sees as heroic in the rugged American individual. On top of that, Herzog and the real-life Dieter became close friends, so I think that Herzog wanted the film's last moments to faithfully reproduce Dieter's fantasy-vision of how his post-rescue reception went down.
Doing that, flag-waving and all, can make uncomfortable viewing for PC-minded leftist like myself and many of us here, for whom a grim, Vietnam-as-metaphor-for-Iraq ending would probably go down easier. But I think Herzog also wanted to play the provocateur and not give us that sort of ending.
http://entertainment.msn.com/news/article.aspx?news=268043
and the picture is hilarious because he is wearing sandals while carrying an assault rifle.
Two grippingly poignant, subtle, and totally opposingly styled films that I highly recommend by the man Werner are: Cobra Verde and Where the Green Ants Dream.