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'Based on Truth' movie has local link

Rescue Dawn ( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0462504/ ) a newly released to video movie is the story of a young pilot shot down and held in a prison camp in Laos - and his eventual escape.

We rented it this weekend (the wife's a huge Christian Bale fan) and since it was touted as 'based on a true story', she went out on line to find out more about the real guys.

What she found was that as usual, "based on a true story" was quite loose, and that the people who put the movie together were more interested in making a sellable movie than hurting the families of the people involved.

Rent the movie - enjoy it for what it is, but then go check out http://www.rescuedawnthetruth.com/

The character named Eugene DeBruin was set up to look like a quitter who was off his rocker - they made him up to look quite like Charles Manson. Worse, they portrayed him as a backstabber who would betray his fellow comrades. Untrue.

If you want to hear the truth, check out that link. Note that one of the authors is one of the actual characters portrayed in the movie. Another (and my reason for writing today) is Jerry DeBruin, brother of the falsely portrayed Eugene, and a faculty member at the University of Toledo.

Again - enjoy the movie. The main character, Deiter Dengler was a hero - that much is true, but bear in mind that so were every one of the other POW's there, including Eugene DeBruin - who's persona was unfairly portrayed in a foul light. His family would appreciate it.

created by billy on Dec 10, 2007 at 12:47:01 pm     Comments: 5

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Comments ... #

Another good source for the truth behind the story:

http://www.air-america.org/debruin/rescue_dawn.shtml

posted by FatBabe44 on Dec 10, 2007 at 01:12:39 pm     #



Bale's now deceased father married Gloria Steinham.

I was reading that war movies don't pull numbers nearly as well as they used to. They used to be guaranteed gold.

John Wayne got famous by not enlisting in WWII and made movies instead(inc. war ones) while more famous and established actors served their country. He basically owes his whole career as a patriotic actor by skipping out on a popular duty. An interesting twist.

posted by charlatan on Dec 10, 2007 at 01:20:38 pm     #



I'm actually a big fan of the director, Wernor Herzog, who is a complete character himself.

Case in point...

Anyway, I watched the movie last night and thought it was really great.

posted by jhostetler on Dec 10, 2007 at 02:02:39 pm     #



The truth? I am not so much interested in wheter the movie followed the book so much as the truth about the Laotians.

I have known everal Laotian [Hmong] families who were hunted down by the Vietcong after the U.S. left Vietnam. You may know that these Hmong were hired by the CIA to look for and hide American pilots who were shot down in the mountains of Laos.

When we pulled out, they were sitting ducks to be executed for their support of the Americans. The U.S. government gave special entrance visas to the Hmong who escaped to the refugee camps in Thailand. Many arrived in Toledo in the winter of 1979 due to the generocity of many local churches.

I could write a book, but the point I'd like to make is about 'truth.' So many ignorant Americans, Toleoans, showed overt disdain, bigotry and intolerance to these people as they tried to live and work in our city. They were called Gooks and Commies by the ignorant people withwhom they came into contact. Many thought they were Vietcong.

They managed to get through this discrimination and secured jobs and eventually were able to purchase homes and become American citizens.

The truth.

posted by Man_with_the_muck_rake on Dec 10, 2007 at 02:17:31 pm     #



There are a ton of Hmong in Minnesota/Wisconsin areas and I remember reading some very very sad stories about problems between Hmong and American hunters... including a couple involving targeting and murdering (on both sides).

posted by jhostetler on Dec 10, 2007 at 03:48:08 pm     #