The living survivor of the daring escape from Ban Hoi Het prison speaks out about Rescue Dawn. Read Pisidhi Indradat's critique of the movie.
After seeing "Rescue Dawn" I learned that it is a good movie for people who do not know the real story. For those who do know the real story, it is another “Hollywood style” movie full of exaggerations and lies. However, I would like to give credit to the location manager who understood how to choose the location which looked similar to the area of the prison camp, and all the camera crew who made the film at least look like a good production.
Concerning director/writer Werner Herzog:
I heard from many people that Herzog is a good film producer who produced many good movies. I have never seen any of the movies he produced prior to this movie. For "Rescue Dawn", Herzog neglected and failed to make an effort to obtain accurate details and facts before making this film. The failure to research and get accurate information resulted in this film being 90% bullshit (mostly untrue). I will point out important mistakes Herzog made in this film as follows:
I. The total number of prisoners in the camp
There were seven (7) prisoners in the camp at the time we made our escape. In the movie, there were only six (6) prisoners. The missing prisoner was Prasit Thanee. In the prisoner camp at the time there were three Americans, three Thais, and one Chinese. Their names are as follows:
1. American
A) Eugene Henry DeBruin - Air America
B) Duane Whitney Martin - USAF Pilot
C) Dieter Dengler - US Navy Pilot
2. Thai
A) Prasit Promsuwan - Air America
B) Pisidhi Indradat - Air America
C) Prasit Thanee - Air America
3. Chinese
A) Y.C. To - Air America
Prasit Thanee was the youngest of the prisoners. He was around 23-24 years old at that time, and he was the tallest and the biggest among our group. He was able to speak and understand the Laotian language very well. He was the one always listening to the guards when they spoke to each other. He would then relate the necessary and important information to me or to Prasit Promsuwan in Thai. After, either Prasit or I would relay the information to the rest of the prisoners.
II. The Character of Eugene DeBruin
"Rescue Dawn" portrayed the character of Eugene DeBruin as a crazy, abnormal, and emotionally unstable person. This false representation of Eugene’s character truly hurt my feelings and I was very disappointed with the way Herzog developed Eugene’s character in the movie. The movie’s representation of Eugene DeBruin could not be further from the truth. From what I knew about Eugene, he earned a Bachelor’s degree in forestry from Montana University. Upon graduation, he got a job as a smokejumper at the base in Missoula. Later, he worked with Air America at the Vientiane station in Laos as an airfreight specialist. There is no way that Eugene could have been a smokejumper or worked for Air America if he actually possessed the characteristics shown in the movie. I absolutely cannot accept this distortion of his character in this film! During the two years that I spent with him in prison, I have come to a conclusion that Eugene is a brave, polite, calm and loyal person. He always kept his promises. He was in top mental and emotional condition throughout the whole ordeal, and there were none of the character traits that his character had in the film.
III. Props that were misused in the film
The big water jar: I noticed in the film that there was a big container of water made of clay or cement placed in the prison camp. This is an obvious sign of bad research of the actual prison camp because the prison was located deep in the jungle between Vietnam and the Laos border. Who is going to carry that jar to the prison camp?
IV. Other inaccurate events portrayed in the film
The handcuff scene: The part where Dieter Dengler made a small knife and key to unlock our handcuffs was inaccurate. What really happened was that I was the one who made both objects at Bantham prison, and this was even before Dengler moved into the prison! The handcuffs shown in the film did not resemble the real handcuffs at all.
The escape scene: During the escape in the film, Dengler and Martin made up one team, while DeBruin, Pisidhi, and Prasad made up the other team. However, the movie portrayed only Dengler and Martin as being the only ones to fend off the guards. In reality, there were indeed two teams, but my team did carry out our part of the plan. In the film, it seemed like we just disappeared after agreeing to meet at the guards’ kitchen. This is not true. I also fought four guards and shot one during the escape.
The shoe reference: After our escape from the prison, we met that very night on top of the mountain. The film showed that Dengler met DeBruin and asked him why he did not go through with the plan. He also asked what happened to the supplies that they agreed to take along with them. DeBruin replied that Pisidhi was the one who took three pairs of shoes. This kind of script writing is preposterous! Do you think I can eat those shoes? Instead of taking three pairs of shoes with me, don’t you think it would have been a better idea to take the rice and salt instead?
Overall, there are still a lot of mistakes I found throughout the film, but I think this is enough to give you an idea of the gross inaccuracies that were carelessly portrayed.
Dieter Dengler's Letter to the DeBruin Family