The biggest and best of the supplements on this disc is a commentary track with director Werner Herzog and moderator Norman Hill of Subversive Cinema. Hill has moderated Herzog commentaries before for Anchor Bay and Subversive and he knows the man's work very well. As such, he's a good choice to moderate here, as he keeps asking the right questions ensuring that Werner, who is rarely at a loss for words, stays on topic and keeps the information coming. The pair discusses the real life Dieter Dengler, Herzog notes the physical similarities between he and Bale, and Herzog does a surprisingly good job of discussing the history behind the picture and putting Dengler's story into context. They talk about the digital effects used for the airplane sequences because the planes they needed just weren't available (Herzog says this is the first time in his life he's used digital effects) as well as Bale's dramatic weight loss. They cover the fact that in real life there were seven prisoners in the camp, Herzog noting that he opted to use six in the film to make it less complicated, and they talk about working with the native crew brought on board and some of the pros and cons of shooting in Thailand. Throughout the talk Herzog is jovial and he sounds quite inspired as he elaborates on what went into getting this project off the ground. His enthusiasm comes through even when talking about how his set burnt down and how some of his cast members went to jail during the shoot, comparing his experiences on this film to those that he went through on Fitzcarraldo. Herzog fans will definitely enjoy this talk, as it's not only quite interesting but it's fairly amusing as well. There's barely any dead air whatsoever and it's packed with information.

Up next is a featurette entitled The Making Of A True Storywhich has been broken up into four separate chapters, the first of which is Unfinished Business: Telling Dieter's Story (4:19). Here Herzog explains the real life events that inspired the film and gives us some interesting background information on the real life Dieter Dengler. Bale shows up here and talks about his take on the character and we're treated to some clips from the film and some behind the scenes photographs. The second segment, Strength Of Character (9:16), allows Bale to talk about his meeting with Herzog and how the director's personality sold him on the part by asking him blunt questions. Herzog returns the compliments and explains how they agreed to make a movie and not a documentary, allowing Bale to bring his own interpretation of Dengler to the screen. There are some neat pictures of the real Dengler here, and Herzog gives us more background on the man behind the movie, explaining how Bale shares many of the man's qualities making him the ideal choice for the part. Steve Zahn also expresses his admiration for Herzog, and a few other cast and crewmembers give their thoughts on the casting of the film. War Stories (23:51) is an interesting segment that shows us some behind the scenes footage which explain how a few of the war scenes were done without the aid of CGI. Herzog states that he wants to put the audience in a situation where they can trust their eyes again, and from there he explains why he wanted to shoot on location in a real jungle and avoid digital effects. Bale refutes the claim that Herzog is a sadistic director, and Zahn backs him up on this, and it's interesting to hear how these actors dealt with the rigorous and difficult shoot that this film required. From there Herzog talks about the difficulties in bringing the film in on schedule, budgetary restraints and more. The last segment is What Would Dieter Do? (6:44), and it allows Herzog to talk about what the real Dieter would have done in the situations we see the character based on him deal with. There's some more behind the scenes footage here and thoughts from Bale as well as from the actor who played the prison warden in the film. These segments are available on their own or by way of a 'play all' feature and they are all presented in 1.78.1 anamorphic widescreen.

Also included on the disc are three deleted scenes: Don't Tell Her You Love Her (0:36, a brief conversation in the barracks),Coercion (2:37, Bale being harassed by his captors), and The Stolen Ring (2:30, Bale interacting with his captors and being led around while bound). All three are available with or without optional commentary from Herzog (again joined by Hill) who explains their significance as well as why they were taken out of the finished version of the film. You can watch these on their own or by way of a 'play all' feature. These are presented in non-anamorphic widescreen.

Rounding out the extra features is a still gallery of one hundred and fifty two images (color and black and white promotional and behind the scenes pictures), trailers for Fly Boys, Home Of The Brave and Mr. Books (all in anamorphic widescreen), animated menus and chapter stops. The trailer for the feature itself is conspicuously absent from this DVD.

Those expecting an ultra violent shoot'em up could be in for a shock as Herzog has crafted an intelligent and genuinely moving war time drama with Rescue Dawn. Bale and the supporting cast are uniformly excellent throughout and the cinematography is outstanding. Fox's disc contains some great extra features that are interesting and entertaining and this release easily comes highly recommended.

Ian lives in NYC with his wife where he writes for DVD Talk, runs Rock! Shock! Pop!. He likes NYC a lot, even if it is expensive and loud.