Little Dieter Needs to Fly (1997)

User Rating:

8.2/10   

Director:

Werner Herzog

Writer:

Werner Herzog (writer)

Release Date:

2 October 1998 (USA)

Genre:

Documentary | Biography | Drama | War

Plot:

In 1966, Dieter Dengler was shot down over Laos, captured, and, down to 85 pounds, escaped. Barefoot...

Plot Keywords:

Escape | Vietcong | Torture | Pilot | Prisoner Of War

Awards:

Nominated for Primetime Emmy. Another 5 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Dieter Dengler	...	Himself
Werner Herzog	...	Himself / Narrator (voice)
Eugene Deatrick	...	Himself

Also Known As:

Flucht aus Laos (Germany)

Runtime:

USA:80 min

Country:

France | UK | Germany

Language:

English | German

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Filming Locations:

California, USA

Company:

Werner Herzog Filmproduktion

Quotes:

Narrator: But from the air, Vietnam didn't seem real at all. For Dengler it was like a grid on a map. He had suddenly found himself not only a pilot, but a soldier caught up in a real war. But even though it was all very real, everything down there seemed to be so alien and so abstract. It all looked strange, like a distant barbaric dream.

Movie Connections:

Spin off Rescue Dawn (2006)

Fascinating, even if it doesn't completely gel in all respects

The movie is mainly a monologue, with glimpses of Dieter's life nowadays, but built in its central section around the somewhat bizarre device of having him return to the jungle with a band of Vietnamese who partly reenact his experiences - he demonstrates torture techniques, the march through the jungle etc. Herzog is too much a filmmaker to be satisfied with mere memories it seems - he must also see: although with full knowledge that this form of retrospective seeing will be inescapably somewhat bizarre. Dieter's past traumas and current stability (although he's still preoccupied by the idea of closed doors and is still hoarding vast unneeded emergency food supplies - the former seems a bit staged, but that's part of the intrigue) seem to chime with Herzog's own past glories and now relative reduced state, and the title with its obviously childish edge has an air of longing and acknowledgment of past fantasies and their fatal possibilities. But despite the true pain of the monologue, Herzog doesn't dwell on adversity, but rather on the ultimate grandeur (for example, the final image of thousands of military planes parked in the desert) - in which context his movie seems to fall short of the true cosmic resonance of some of Errol Morris' work. But he coaxes Dieter's story expertly and has the classic strengths of a good story-teller, and the movie's quite fascinating even if it doesn't completely gel in all respects.