Rescue Dawn is screening at several theaters in the area. Check the Brattle calendar for showtimes ofThe Mystery of Kaspar Hauser and Aguirre, the Wrath of God. The last two movies run through Monday.

In a recent post, we suggested that summer wasn't the right time for heavy film fare. But Boston won't be able to ignore the physically and mentally demanding work of Werner Herzog, whose movies old and new are showing throughout the Boston area.

Herzog is known for pushing his actors to the absolute limit, and he gets the most out of Christian Bale in the brand-new Rescue Dawn. Rescue Dawn is the dramatized version of an earlier Herzog documentary, Little Dieter Needs to Fly. Christian Bale acts out the suffering of Dieter Dengler, a pilot held as a prisoner during the Vietnam War. Bale's performance is absolutely top-notch as he and his fellow prisoners (including Steve Zahn and Jeremy Davies) plot how to make their lives more comfortable and how to escape the camp.

Beyond the big-action moments, the relationship that develops between Bale and Zahn's characters in particular is one of the most surprisingly touching friendships to be captured on film. Herzog also dives into the deprivations that the prisoners of war suffer together. Since this is coming from Herzog, any film aficionado knows that there are few special effects - the actors are undergoing real torture on screen. Everyone involved is as thin as a rail. In fact, Zahn's beard may weigh more than he does by the end. Likewise, the actors feast on worms and strip the flesh from snakes with their teeth.

If that doesn't turn you off and you still want more Herzog, then go to the Brattle, which is showing 1974's The Mystery of Kaspar Hauser and 1972's Aguirre, the Wrath of God. Herzog hired Bruno S., a nonprofessional actor, to portray the real-life Kaspar Hauser, a young man who encounters civilization for the first time when he enters a Nuremburg village. Aguirre, the Wrath of God follows the crazed Klaus Kinski as he portrays an even crazier conquistador searching for El Dorado. Herzog and Kinski had such a tortured relationship that Kinski said of Herzog: "Huge red ants should piss into his lying eyes, gobble up his balls, penetrate his asshole, and eat his guts!" No one does crazy quite like Kinski.