Little Dieter Needs to FlyThe dream of flight has been with mankind for a long time. In some it manifests as a dreamlike desire to soar overhead, in others to pilot a complex machine. For Dieter Dengler, it was both, and his passion from childhood was what brought him from post-war Germany to the United States. His odyssey eventually led him to enlist in the Navy as a pilot in the Vietnam War; he was shot down and kept prisoner for six months in Laos. His fight for survival, his daring escape, his passion for flight, all of these qualities help to define this man, who modestly refutes the claims that he is a hero.
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Werner Herzog's documentary about a fellow countryman who would go to travel the world, to experience it in ways beyond the restrictions of his homeland, becomes a story about a man who we could not guess would have experienced the fascinating life he has lived. Dieter's life started with humble origins, in the wake of the bombed out nightmarescape of Germany after the Second World War, where he and others were forced to eat the glue from wallpaper to survive. One night as a child--during the war--he had witnessed a plane fly dangerously close to his house. As opposed to being fearful of the flying machines, he became forever fascinated by them. Only, after the disarmament, he could not become a pilot in Germany; so after completing an apprenticeship with a blacksmith, he set sail for America. But even after joining the Air Force, he did not get to fly; so he set off in a VW van to California, and he lived in that van for two and a half years, getting an education, then joining the Navy and making his way to Vietnam. But while flying over Laos, he was shot down and taken prisoner by the Laotians--then Vietnamese--who subjected him to torture and starvation, him and others like him. Dieter recalls these terrible times as he revisits the land of his captivity, even recreating events from that traumatic time for the sake of the documentary--and to purge his inner demons. He talks about how he and the others, like his friend Dwayne, were forced to eat rats and snakes to stay alive. It is no surprise after this revelation that when we met Dieter earlier on in the film--in his California home on the mountain--we understand how important his stockpile of food is...not just for sustenance, but as he says, so he can sleep at night. In fact, one of the marvels of Herzog's film is that at first, Dieter seems like a bit of a nut, but this is because we have yet to know him and understand him. Once we have the context for the harrowing ordeals he has lived through which would have easily crushed a lesser man, our appreciation for his suffering makes us more sympathetic to the scars they have left upon him, physically and emotionally.
Little Dieter Needs to Fly gets its title from something Dieter says about his fascination with flying as a child, an understanding he had about this need. We get moments observing him at airfields, getting into cockpits and sitting as comfortable in one as a baby in his mother's arms. He has outfitted his home with replicas of zeppelins and a Supermarine Spitfire; at the end, he is in bliss amongst what he calls a "heaven for pilots" surrounded by miles after miles of jet planes. It is clear that this passion has defined Dieter Dengler, and his life would have been completely different without it--perhaps he would have remained a blacksmith in Schwarzwald, working on antique clocks, just as he had been trained to do. But Dieter was destined to fly, as a bird has wings. His account of his captivity in Southeast Asia is in such detail--and sometimes recreated with that same detail--that it fills us with a sense of dread to think how we might have reacted under similar circumstances. Would we have been strong enough to survive as Dieter was? The documentary opens with a quote from the Book of Revelation, about how at the end of days, men would chase death but would not find it; although the quote is taken somewhat out of context, it pertains to Dieter in that he seems to have been able to survive impossible odds, and under nearly implausible circumstances. Herzog comments on this, disclosing that after an early retirement from the military, he went on to become a test pilot, even crashing four additional times. Death--it appears--did not want Dieter...at least not yet. The film ends with a postscript, indicating that Dieter Dengler finally did pass away in 2001, and was given full military honors when he was buried in Arlington, even with a squadron of F-14s flying overhead in his honor. Not too bad for a poor boy from Germany, who grew up to become a war hero...not too bad at all.
Recommended for: Fans of awe-inspiring war stories and a tour of duty in the life of a man who lived a life richer than a slice of Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte, because he was driven by his love of aviation, and his need to survive against impossible odds, and could still convey a vibrant smile in the wake of his ordeals.
Little Dieter Needs to Fly gets its title from something Dieter says about his fascination with flying as a child, an understanding he had about this need. We get moments observing him at airfields, getting into cockpits and sitting as comfortable in one as a baby in his mother's arms. He has outfitted his home with replicas of zeppelins and a Supermarine Spitfire; at the end, he is in bliss amongst what he calls a "heaven for pilots" surrounded by miles after miles of jet planes. It is clear that this passion has defined Dieter Dengler, and his life would have been completely different without it--perhaps he would have remained a blacksmith in Schwarzwald, working on antique clocks, just as he had been trained to do. But Dieter was destined to fly, as a bird has wings. His account of his captivity in Southeast Asia is in such detail--and sometimes recreated with that same detail--that it fills us with a sense of dread to think how we might have reacted under similar circumstances. Would we have been strong enough to survive as Dieter was? The documentary opens with a quote from the Book of Revelation, about how at the end of days, men would chase death but would not find it; although the quote is taken somewhat out of context, it pertains to Dieter in that he seems to have been able to survive impossible odds, and under nearly implausible circumstances. Herzog comments on this, disclosing that after an early retirement from the military, he went on to become a test pilot, even crashing four additional times. Death--it appears--did not want Dieter...at least not yet. The film ends with a postscript, indicating that Dieter Dengler finally did pass away in 2001, and was given full military honors when he was buried in Arlington, even with a squadron of F-14s flying overhead in his honor. Not too bad for a poor boy from Germany, who grew up to become a war hero...not too bad at all.
Recommended for: Fans of awe-inspiring war stories and a tour of duty in the life of a man who lived a life richer than a slice of Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte, because he was driven by his love of aviation, and his need to survive against impossible odds, and could still convey a vibrant smile in the wake of his ordeals.