Little Dieter Needs to Fly (1997)

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:

Dieter Dengler: Duane, my friend, he was gone, and from then on my motions, my progress, became mechanical. In fact, I couldn't care less if I would live or die. But then later on, there was this bear, this beautiful bear that was following me. It was circling me in fact sometimes...

Movie Connections:

Spin off Rescue Dawn (2006)

a surreal documentary about a German American who needs food and flight

Werner Herzog again explores the psyche of a man. In "Little Dieter...", we meet an effervescent, brilliant man who survived the war in Bavaria seeing starvation and strange sights, moved to the U.S. and fulfilled his dream of being a flier. War, food, death, survival, hoarding, planes, heads coming off... how one American is born. Herzog again sees madness as plane of existence and the surreal blends with the poignant as Herzog himself narratives this psychic travelogue of a German becoming an American who flies prop planes in a late 20th century war where the culmination of technology, pilgrimage and eating out of garbage cans with spoons is melded with constant optimism into a man redefined into American. As always with Herzog we are faced with florid madness, brilliance and what is man in the face of his own excesses, societal and personal. We laugh and cringe and are amazed at this man. Where else for this man but America?