The film is based on a true story of an American pilot (German-born Dieter Dengler) who crashed in enemy territory during his first mission of the Vietnam war.  The movie depicts the POW treatment that Dengler endured leading up to his bold escape. No doubt, it's a courageous tale that is worthy of the big screen treatment.  While many movie watchers might say that a Vietnam POW movie is nothing original, what distinguishes "Rescue Dawn" from that branding is the fact that it's a true story offering a first hand account of the events.

 

Klaus Badelt was brought in for the scoring duties for the film.  This project offered Badelt an opportunity that he was looking forward to quite a bit due to the involvement of a director of Herzog's stature.   No longer designated as an up and coming talent, Badelt is fully entrenched on the composing circuit, working for a variety of diverse big screen projects that span the globe.  For 'Dawn,' Badelt brought with him his sensibilities for writing lush, melodic film music which he employs to effective use on this picture.   Due to the subject of the film, the score itself wasn't designed to represent a war adventure full of exciting action cues, rather, it was setup to accompany Dengler on his perilous, difficult journey that was both physical and mental.

 

The score offers a main theme that is small in stature but useful as a connecting piece.  Often during the score, Badelt calls upon this dramatic theme, which has a distinct emotional build to it, to guide us through the events.  The theme represents a yearning for home and also contains a sense of hardship and pain within the notes.  While serviceable, I found myself waiting and hoping to see the theme brought to a full rendition at some point.  This is a request that is answered later on the album during track 15, where Badelt delivers the finest moments of the album with a victorious orchestral statement that brings the main theme to full realization.  It's wonderful material that demonstrates Badelt's capabilities. There are also other sequences during the score that are above average, such as the suspense cues as heard in tracks 3 and 6 where the pacing of each builds up a feeling of a distinct peril.  There is also a surprisingly effective song track, entitled 'Lights,' near the end of the disc that is understated yet emotional, offering a nice touch to the presentation. Also dramatic, however, is the concluding cue, 'This is How I Remember Him,' which offers narrative from Warner Herzog atop the music from Badelt, which comes together in a poetic and haunting manner.

 

What the score lacks, in my opinion, is a bit more of an underscore.  If anything, Badelt's music sometimes comes across as too lush and full with a tendency to recall the main themes too often.  When he gets to the point where he can scale things back and pinpoint a manner in which to deliver a consistently effective underscore, than his material will really shine.  Perhaps another item that could have helped this score out would have been to include a stronger touch of Vietnamese elements somewhere within the course of the album.  Granted this is Dengler's story, but it did take place in Vietnam, thus I think more could have been added to the musical palette to represent the setting.

 

"Rescue Dawn" offers moments of exceptional work but lacks the overall strength to keep you coming back for more.  It demonstrates Badelt's skill to write beautiful, emotional music but it also reminds us that such material needs to be counter-balanced with an underscore that builds tension up.  Overall, Badelt fans will be pleased with this score while others will find some nice excerpts for personal compilation discs.  A passable recommendation.