没盐

 

 

Ten years ago, German expatriate Werner Herzog—now a U.S. resident—directed the documentary Little Dieter Needs to Fly. The subject of the film was Dieter Dengler, another German expatriate who emigrated to the U.S. in order to become a pilot. As a Navy flyer, he was shot down while on his first combat mission, crash landing in the Laotian jungle during the early years of the Viet Nam War. After several months, he escaped from a POW camp, crossed into Thailand, and eventually rejoined his Navy unit.

Rescue Dawn is a dramatized retelling of Dengler’s story, starring Christian Bale as Dengler.

Thirty years ago and more, Herzog began a remarkable and prolific film career with arthouse classics like Aguirre, Wrath of God, Stroszek, Nosferatu the Vampyre, and Woyzeck. In 1982, he directed Fitzcarraldo, an epic tale about a man’s struggle to move a boat over a mountain. Many critics saw the film—and much of Herzog’s work, as well—as a commentary about film itself, and the struggle of the artistic process.

On this self-referential level, Rescue Dawn works as well as any of Herzog’s films.

The subject of the film, Dengler, perseveres under the most obscene of conditions to accomplish something no one would believe possible if they didn’t know it to be true—and even many of those involved in the effort are the biggest nay-sayers. In true Herzog fashion, the production itself placed almost obscene demands on the performers and—one can only imagine, given the tales of what Klaus Kinski endured for years as Herzog’s alter ego, and given the tortured souls that actors tend to possess in the first place—most likely drove one or more of its stars to the very limits of the human spirit.

Further, the film itself is something of an ordeal for the audience—much as Aguirre, Fitzcarraldo, and others before it. Think, perhaps, of a Terrence Malick or Carroll Ballard film tied to a bullwhip or a mace. Think of lyric brutality.

And then imagine Herzog thinking, rather dispassionately, that any audience which imagines itself as suffering more than Dengler—or himself, as an artist—is not much worth worrying about. I’d say that the smart money is that you won’t much care for Rescue Dawn; and the smarter money would be bet that Herzog isn’t making this film to satisfy a broad audience. We shouldn’t ever confuse Herzog with Spielberg, for instance.

But if you like cinema that demands a great deal of you, that doesn’t let you off the hook with ten-second character development, a half-hour hook, and three dazzling chase sequences, then Rescue Dawn may just be for you. It may well be Herzog’s most purely commercial work to date—a point that is probably wholly irrelevant.

Expect, perhaps, a film that might have been made by a less cerebral and more earthy Eastwood. But don’t expect gratuitousness of any sort from Rescue Dawn, any more than you would of an Eastwood film. There aren’t any gruesome Casino Royale torture scenes; there aren’t any mind-rending Deer Hunter Russian roulette sequences; even the actual escape is terribly tame by Rambo standards. Just expect healthy doses of verisimilitude—tons of staged non-reality that smacks more of the truth than anything you’re likely to see from reality TV.

Also don’t expect some left-wing bleeding-heart anti-war propaganda. There’s nothing here that will make your heart swell in patriotic fervor, if you aren’t already so disposed; but the film also makes no attempt to denigrate or psychoanalyze those who have served their country in times of war. It doesn’t even attempt to make many generalized statements about war or the cost of war.

What Rescue Dawn does, though, is return once again to one of Herzog’s favorite themes: the need for man to realize that he does not dominate nature, but that he is a force of nature. Early on the film, Dengler and other aviators watch a Navy training film about jungle survival. The narrator emphasizes the need to “make nature work for” the soldier—as the pilots laugh about tactics like drinking rain water from palm leaves. Later, one of Dengler’s fellow prisoners tells him that the POW camp’s walls are not the obstacle: “The jungle is the prison.”

True enough—if one thinks that one is somehow of a different nature than the jungle. Dengler himself observes that “the quick have their sleepwalkers, and so do the dead.” Rather than sleepwalking through the POW experience, and ending up dead in the end anyway, he accepts that’s it’s within man’s nature to be just as savage as his environment—and he summons the full capacity of the human will, not to overcome the jungle, but to become one with it. “Just when you think you can’t go on any longer,” Dengler knows, you find that you just do, because the alternative is surrender.

Where does this strength come from in Dengler when it so obviously fails his fellow prisoners? It’s hard to say. But as Rescue Dawn would have it, at least, Dengler possessed it from the time he was a child, watching Allied fighters strafe Dresden. As he looked a low-flying pilot in the eye, he saw not an enemy, but an opportunity. He wanted to be a pilot, too. We might find it odd, as Dengler’s friends do, that “a guy tries to kill you and you want his job.” But somehow, Dengler doesn’t worry about death, revenge, and victimhood. His focus is on life and opportunity.

That’s really something. And it’s a very humanist something. Sadly, it’s a brand of humanism that’s mostly useful in times of war and violent natural disaster—but not much of any other time. I can’t help thinking of the closing lines of Apocalypse Now! “The horror. The horror.”

It’s hard for me to be inspired (or entertained) much by humanity’s more horrific nature.

Rescue Dawn is rated PG-13 for “some sequences of intense war violence and torture.” That’s pretty fair; at the same time, I think knowing your teens is probably pretty important with this film all the same. It might traumatize some younger teens—and for some the same age, it might be just the kind of wakening trauma that the doctor ordered. Don’t be too put off by the torture label, though. Herzog has done a very tasteful and tactful job of dramatizing this story. Just don’t expect it to be all that exciting.

 

的意思就是神兹乌兹。其实今天阿东在上学的路上就告诉我，20周年了。

 

同时，他提议我明天可以去Plaza de Catalunya高举自由、民主、人权、平等的标志牌来争取政治避难。但是我想到我们家居委会的阿姨们也很认真负责的多次试图和我联系来帮助待业大学生找工作，想想社会主义还是有好的一面，相反倒是自由民主的西方政府一次次试图扼杀我的求学愿望、剥夺我自由去留的权力。比如说，今天UAB的RTF里某黑人就表情严肃的告诉我们，读完硕士研究生不能再通过其他课程续学生居留，除非读博士和圣斗士。

 

阿东又告诉我，国内很多上猫扑和天涯的同学想移民，因为国内的政治现象和通货膨胀。中国现在的国内生产总值平减指数和消费者物价指数我不知道——因为很多时候我都完全不在状况，比如前天去portaventura其中一个动感影院的项目直到排了半小时队我才得知那不是激流勇进——但是可以知道的是，现在哪儿都有高通胀和高失业。中国的问题只是在于人多。只要坚决的和党站在同一阵线，比如加入石油电信房产等行业，就会成为经济高速发展或者四万亿的受益者，不会产生数学系毕业之后才意识到自己加入了结构性失业者行列的现象。这个郎教授称之为过热行业与过冷行业。说到这个，缪教授就要回国了，遥祝一路顺利。

上午灌了一壶咖啡后单刀赴会，参加了论文会议。我第一次在和老师打招呼时加上了教授这个称呼，老师变得客气了许多。认真的描述了锅同学和我的想法后，老师很客气的提醒我时间有些紧迫了，我说这不是因为A型流感耽误了锅同学的航班嘛，随后起身很严肃的弯腰60度左右和老师握了手，并且热情的加了句，感谢您宝贵的时间，一刹那间我觉得自己非常有教养。早上起床我特意换掉了Ian Curtis的短袖，并且上了发胶刮了胡子，使我在气质上完全的表现出了阳光灿烂和积极向上。

 

而后和萧同学及陈同学聊了会儿天。我已经很长时间没有和人聊天了，一直躲在家擤鼻涕，生怕出去被人当作流感抓起来和猪一起隔离。聊天很愉快，我把昨天所有在报纸上看到的从93分钟的进球到墨西哥积极预防流感、从7名索马里海盗归还西班牙船只到3000多家公司和200多个家庭宣布破产国家统计局表示同季度相比增加200％的新闻和大家交流了一下，表现出我运筹帷幄熟谙世事没在家光睡觉的状态。

 

回家的路上阿东问我最近情绪如何，我打了个哈欠说我完全没有什么情绪，在几天Estazolam的帮助下。他好奇的问我从哪里搞到的Estazolam，我说我妈给的，作为抗焦虑的处方药没有什么副作用，并且叮嘱我千万不能把一盒一口气都吞下去。当然我也看过House医生，知道todo el mundo miente，所以不放心去看了下wikipedia，证明是有些副作用的。说这话的时候我们进了火车站，看到前面一群女生穿着高跟鞋狂奔，踢踢踏踏的非常有Alegría的感觉，阿东大喊corre corre，我也就跟着狂奔，很莫名的赶上了一班火车，气喘吁吁。我说，这就是副作用的一种，乏力。阿东很惊讶的看着我，我觉得他肯定以为我有精神病，于是我补充解释说，这是一种做助眠用的药物，只能短期服用，我只是用来帮助一下睡眠，锅同学曾经有几天晚上睡不着，不知道是不是因为做了“×××校方代表锅老师”有些不适应的关系，问我要过几片，服用后反馈的结果相当好，证明这是一款居家旅行的必备良药。

 

到家后坐在沙发上看一本inmobiliario的目录，居然还看得挺愉快，联想到新闻里说35％的破产企业是不动产和建筑，但是没发现价格很便宜，一套5室3厅的公寓卖80万，又看到一套带泳池的80平米联体小别墅租2800一个月。于是和阿东又聊起了房产。小狼睡眼惺忪的从房间里出来抱起小孩儿象倒马桶一样凑到我身前来，小孩儿一张嘴把口水都滴在了我早上刚换的短袖上，很直观的说明这是水瓶座小孩儿。我们聊着聊着不知道怎么又聊到了小林。这个卅等都艾加的故事我最爱说，自然是说的唾沫星子横飞，阿东又津津有味全神贯注的听了一遍。他家妈妈让他跑贸易，但是我发现他倒是更关注人的生存状态。不管是猎奇的心态还是一种高屋建瓴的人道主义崇高，我自己是挺喜欢这个故事的，也是因为我从小就喜欢对着父母搬出不及格小朋友们的名单来做虽然无用但也拼死挣扎式的逃避没有考好的惩罚。

 

回到房间拿起吉他，自从搬来这里后就很少摸琴了，楼下的Pedro会敲墙并且骂人，他是甲亢和神经病，邻居们都这么议论，所以我不介意他污辱我的音乐。有次他敲墙的时候我突然难以压抑心中的怒火，好像瞬间找到了一个非常合适能加以指责的人选，猛跺地板并且说操你、操你妈、不允许和我说愚蠢的西班牙语、你他妈报警丫，由于平时我为人很礼貌所以一时也想不出更肮脏的词汇，小狼似乎也喊了句“尼母几掰”，当时是1点，从此以后那秃头再没嚣张过。后来为了以防万一我又花时间练习了一下愤怒的公牛里罗伯特德尼罗对楼下邻居的台词：This son of bitch calls me animal. Hey you! Someday you get old like dog, I'm gonna eat you for lunch, you hear me what I'm saying!? 同时翻译成西语熟记于心：Este hijo de puta me llama animal. Oi, tú! Otro día te envejeces como un perro, te voy a comer pa almuerzo, has ecuchao lo que digo!? 弹琴的时候能听见楼上楼下说话和冲马桶的声音，弹的意兴阑珊，干脆放一边。

 

于是充实的白天就这么快过去了。应该说，今天我的心情相当愉悦。我承认我很喜欢这种井井有条临危不乱并且如果可以的话八面来风的感觉。但是比较刺耳的声音是，我始终能想起Jefferson Airplane的低吟——one pill makes you larger, and one pill makes you small, and the one that mother gives you, don't do anything at all, go ask Alice, when she's ten feet tall.