Little Dieter Needs to Fly

An extraordinary documentary about an extraordinary man, Werner Herzog's LITTLE DIETER NEEDS TO FLY details the life of Dieter Dengler, a survivor of both WWII and Vietnam. Dengler grew up in Germany, and, dreaming of one day flying a plane, left for the US when he was 18, unable to speak English. Soon, he was in the Navy, flying bombing missions over Laos and Vietnam, where his plane was shot down and he was taken prisoner. He and six others escaped the prison, but only he was known to have survived. Herzog turns Dieter's story into something much different than one might expect by putting Dieter back into scenes from his past and recording his amazingly understated reactions. For instance, in Laos, where he was taken prisoner, Herzog binds Dengler's hands and feet as they were in 1966 and uses Vietnamese actors, complete with rifles, to play Viet Cong. It's a startling technique, one that lends this film an intensity and sense of danger that Dengler consistently plays down. The inspiration for Herzog’s fictional film, RESCUE DAWN.