Little Dieter Needs to Fly

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Little Dieter Needs to Fly
Directed by Werner Herzog
Produced by Lucki Stipetić
Written by Werner Herzog
Narrated by Werner Herzog
Starring Dieter Dengler
Cinematography Peter Zeitlinger
Editing by Rainer Standke
Running time 80 minutes (theatrical)
52 minutes (television)
IMDb profile

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. He served a 2-year enlistment in the Air Force, but was frustratingly unable to gain a pilot's slot in that service. After leaving the Air Force, Dengler attended college and then joined the Navy. After completing flight training, he was assigned as an A-1 Skyraider pilot in Attack Squadron 65 on the USS Constellation.

In 1966, Dengler served aboard the USS Ranger (CV-61) with VA-145 (Attack Squadron 145). At the time, the squadron was equipped with the Douglas AD-6/A-1H Skyraider, a single engine, propeller driven attack plane. On the morning of 1 February, Lt. Dengler launched from the Ranger with three other aircraft on an interdiction mission near the Laotian border. Visibility was poor due to weather, and upon rolling in on the target, Lt. Dengler and the remainder of his flight lost sight of one another. Dengler was the last man in and was hit by anti-aircraft fire. He was forced to crash-land his Skyraider in Laos.

Dengler was 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.

[edit] Awards

Won Special Jury Award
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 directed a feature film based on the actual events starring Christian Bale as Dieter called Rescue Dawn. The film was to be released in December 2006, but was put back until 20 July 2007.

[edit] External links

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Films directed by Werner Herzog
1960s
1970s
1980s
1990s

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)
2000s

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 (2007) • Encounters at the End of the World (2007) • The Cheese and the Worms (2008)
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