Little Dieter Needs to Fly

This documentary film from the great film-maker Werner Herzog, tells the story of Dieter Dengler, who grew up in Germany with a passion for flight. Emigrating to the US he joins the Army in order to become a pilot, during the Vietnam War.

Dieter's incredible story is told in his own words. Most of the film involves Dieter in the various locations of his story, describing what happened to him. Dieter comes across as very likable and good-natured. With his eye for the telling detail and surreal moment, Herzog once again explores the mysteries of the world and human nature.

This is a humorous, powerful and deeply moving work and is well worth catching.

I consider this a breathtaking but deceptive film because it seems so simple and straightforward: a Vietnam survivor tells his harrowing tale and some of the story is reenacted on location. Reviewers sometimes even claim that Herzog's presence in the film is minimal, but how wrong they are. We know that all documentaries are "mediated" to some extent and this one has Herzog's subtle hand all over it, most notably in the stunning music, the unbelievably expert selection of archival footage, and the management of cascading images. The evocative power of this film is astounding, starting with its title, the opening title card from the book of "Revelation," and the initial voice-over. This is a movie that one can watch repeatedly with increasing wonder, not a simple commodity that is gulped down with one's favorite beverage on the way to the evening news. This is one of those movies that can resonate with you for a lifetime.

Your jaw will drop to the floor about 3 minutes into the movie......and you won't pick it up again until the end. Drips with irony......as only real life stories can. A masterpiece. A must see in theatre, on video.......any which way you can. Seek it out. If you have seen Crumb and liked it, see this too. If you haven't, then see Crumb also. Truth murders fiction. This is the only 10/10 rating I have ever given a movie.

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.

Little Dieter Needs to Fly was my first film during the 1999 edition of the Göteborg Filmfestival. As I was extremely tired that evening, I was hesitant to see it, but the raving overall score of 9 here at IMDB made me go there.

It was 80 minutes of pure life-force! Experiencing Dieter Denglers life through his own telling was enchanting.

SEE IT! And if possible... see it at a cinema!