Little Dieter Needs to Fly

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You have new messages (last change).

Little Dieter Needs to Fly is a 1997 documentary film made for German television, written and directed by Werner Herzog, produced by Werner Herzog Filmproduktion. The film was released to DVD in 1998 by Anchor Bay.

Contents

[edit] Summary

Herzog found a kindred spirit in German-American Navy pilot and Vietnam veteran, Dieter Dengler. Like Herzog, Dengler grew up in a Germany reduced to rubble by World War II. Dengler's stories of hunger and deprivation in the years after the war echo similar stories from Herzog's past. Dengler recounts an early memory of Allied fighter-bombers destroying his village in which he saw one of the pilots and knew that he too wanted to be a pilot. At 18, then, Dengler emigrated to America, joined the Navy and was shipped off to Vietnam.

During an early mission, Dengler was shot down over Laos and taken prisoner by the Pathet Lao, before being turned over to soldiers of the Army of North Vietnam. After a period of torture and starvation chained to the bottom of a bamboo cage, Dengler escaped. The bulk of the film consists of footage from a trip Herzog took with Dengler back to Laos and Thailand to recreate his ordeal. Herzog hired locals to play the part of his captors and had Dengler retrace his steps while describing his experiences. The result is somewhere between dramatic recreation and a talking-head type interview but more powerful than either in terms of emotional content.

[edit] Awards

Won Special Jury Award
  • International Documentary Association 1998
Won IDA Award Feature Documentaries
  • National Educational Media Network, USA 1999
Won Gold Apple
Won Silver FIPA Documentary and Essay
Nominated Outstanding Non-Fiction Special
Won Golden Spire Television - History
  • Las Vegas Film Critics Society Awards 2000
Nominated Sierra Award Best Documentary

[edit] Note

Herzog shot a feature version of this documentary starring Christian Bale as Dieter called Rescue Dawn. The film was to be released in December 2006, but as of March 2007, has not been released.

[edit] External links

This documentary-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
v • d • e
Films directed by Werner Herzog


Herakles (1962) Game in The Sand (1964) • Last Words (1967) • The Unprecedented Defence of the Fortress Deutschkreuz (1967) • Signs of Life (1968) • The Flying Doctors of East Africa (1969) • Precautions Against Fanatics (1969) • Even Dwarfs Started Small (1970) • Handicapped Future (1971) • Land of Silence and Darkness (1971) • Fata Morgana (1971) • Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972) • The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner (1974) • The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (1974) • Heart of Glass (1976) • No One Will Play with Me (1976) • How much Wood Would a Woodchuck Chuck (1976) • Stroszek (1977) • La Soufrière (1977) • Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979) • Woyzeck (1979) • Huie's Sermon (1980) • God's Angry Man (1980) • Glaube und Währung (1980) • Fitzcarraldo (1982) • Ballad of the Little Soldier (1984) • The Dark Glow of the Mountains (1984) • Where the Green Ants Dream (1984) • Cobra Verde (1987) • The French as seen by... (1988) • Wodaabe - Herdsmen of the Sun (1989) • Film Lesson 1-4 (1990) • Echoes From a Somber Empire (1990) • Jag Mandir (1991) • Scream of Stone (1991) • Lessons of Darkness (1992) • Bells from the Deep (1993) • The Transformation of the World Into Music (1994) • Gesualdo: Death for Five Voices (1995) • Little Dieter Needs to Fly (1997) • The Lord and the Laden (1999) • My Best Fiend (1999) • Wings of Hope (2000) • Invincible (2001) • Pilgrimage (2001) • Ten Minutes Older (2002) • Wheel of Time (2003) • The White Diamond (2004) • Grizzly Man (2005) • The Wild Blue Yonder (2005) • Rescue Dawn (2006) •

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../l/i/t/Little_Dieter_Needs_to_Fly_c314.html"
In other languages