Herzog smart to 'Bale' on 'Rescue Dawn'

Since making an impression as a child actor in such notable films as Steven Spielberg's "Empire of the Sun" (1987), an adaptation of the memoir by British writer J.G. Ballard, Christian Bale has played so many Americans in features that most assume he's a Yank. Not so. The Welch-born actor has been performing since age 9, enjoying a number of parts in English television and stage productions before making a debut in American TV opposite Spielberg's then-wife, Amy Irving.

Spielberg knew at once he'd found his star. Bale was superb in "Empire of the Sun," and, growing into adult roles with a taste for the unusual and demanding, he has earned widespread respect (not to mention box office clout thanks to "Batman Begins").

Last seen opposite Hugh Jackman, Michael Caine and Scarlett Johansson in Chris Nolan's atmospheric "The Prestige" (2006), Bale is gearing up for another Batman film, "The Dark Knight," due out next year.

Meantime, he's appearing in two of this year's more intriguing tales. One is a remake of the fine 1957 Glenn Ford Western, "3:10 to Yuma" (Oct. 5), the new version co-starring Russell Crowe and Gretchen Mol under the direction of James ("Walk the Line") Mangold. Already out (in major markets) is "Rescue Dawn," Werner Herzog's fictionalization of one of his best nonfiction films, the 1998 documentary "Little Dieter Needs to Fly." Interestingly, the latter was produced by a moonlighting Elton Brand, former Duke University and current Los Angeles Clippers basketball star.

"Rescue Dawn" retells the extraordinary true story of Dieter Dengler (Bale), a German immigrant to the United States who, as a U.S. Navy pilot, was shot down and captured during the Vietnam War. Dengler managed to escape from a Viet Cong prison camp, a rare feat, but that's not even half of the story of his odyssey. One wonders how even a director of Herzog's ability — he made the astonishing "Fitzcarraldo," after all — could improve on that obscure but impressive original, and why he'd try. Kudos for the effort, though.

He made a good start in casting Bale, a rather intense sort who takes his craft seriously, generally chooses well, and never phones in a performance. Steve Zahn co-stars in a sharp, smart genre film that is taking viewers by surprise.

All Spall

"Pierrepont: The Last Hangman" won't make one of our favorite character actors — Tim Spall — a matinee idol. It is, however, one of the better showcases of this versatile British performer's talents since "Life Is Sweet."

Spall has lent his pudgy physique and flavorful line readings to a wide range of movies, from "Secrets & Lies" (1996) and "Topsy-Turvy" (1999) to "Nicholas Nickleby" (2002), "The Last Samurai" (2003) and two of the Harry Potter films.

This time he gets to play the lead. "Hangman" is the somber bio of Albert Pierrepoint, who, until his retirement in 1956, served as chief executioner for Her Majesty's government. Aptly described as "grim stuff ... a bookend to 'Vera Drake' in its meld of postwar British reserve and ugly reality," the film's title is misleading in one respect: death by hanging continued in Great Britain until 1964, when capital punishment was abolished. But Pierrepoint — estimated to have hung 450 people — was the only hangman the public really knew.

Directed by Adrian Shergold, and co-starring the wonderful Juliet Stevenson ("Truly, Madly,

Deeply"), it's a movie that does not exploit its subject matter. Rather, it is direct, determinedly nonmelodramatic, and revealing of a man who dealt death yet was uncommonly humane.

Movies' loss, TV's gain

Looks like Kyra Sedgwick may have started a stampede.

Sedgwick (fine in such feature as "Losing Chase"), a hit as Deputy Police Chief Brenda Johnson on "The Closer" (back for its third season) was among the first of a new wave of 40-plus film and stage actresses looking for more complex roles on TV — ironically, at a time when there have been more and better roles (though still not enough) for older actresses than younger ones on the big screen.

On "Saving Grace," a TNT series that begins next month, Holly Hunter (''Broadcast News," "The Piano" ) stars as an Oklahoma sheriff. Meanwhile, Lili Taylor (''The Impostors," "I Shot Andy Warhol") plays an able therapist with family problems of her own in the July premiere of a new Lifetime network series, "State of Mind," and Glenn Close is a dauntingly powerful attorney in "Damages," an FX series which also ramps up in July.

In each of the new series, there's the now obligatory older woman-younger man romantic dynamic. But, hey, what sauce for the goose ...

Ladies, when you get tired of the tube, come back to film. We'll miss you.

Enough already

No one said you can't be a little wild and crazy when you're young (or even when you're not), but really!

There are many talented and sensible young star actors savvy enough not to live public lives and to sidestep the paparazzi. They deliver the goods in the movies they make, seek the glare of publicity only when plugging their films, give thoughtful or at least interesting interviews to serious journalists, and basically comport themselves like adults. They increase genuine interest in their careers because they limit access to themselves and avoid embarrassing situations.

So why must we hear endlessly about nonentities like Paris Hilton? Why are we bombarded by "news" of arrested (literally and figuratively) adolescents — Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan, et al. — who can't or won't grow up? Because the tabloids, the Web servers' home pages and even, regrettably, mainstream newspapers, feel it necessary to cater to the lowest common denominator of public taste. Yes, human train-wrecks-in-progress will always fascinate, for the moment, but readers and viewers can also be conditioned to want this junk.