Werner Herzog is committed to authentic filmmaking. For his 1982 movie Fitzcarraldo, Herzog had his crew hoist a steamboat — a full-scale vessel weighing hundreds of tons — up and over a mountaintop. And for his latest movie, Rescue Dawn, he took his cast and crew deep into the jungles of Thailand. It’s the true story of an American pilot named Dieter Dengler who was shot down and taken prisoner in Laos in 1966. Christian Bale plays Dengler — and as Herzog tells Kurt, the director did not go easy on Bale or any of his actors.