''Little Dieter Needs to Fly'' (german: Flucht aus Laos, lit=Escape from Laos) is a 1997 German-British-French

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...

written and directed by

Werner Herzog Werner Herzog (; born 5 September 1942) is a German film director, screenwriter, author, actor, and opera director, regarded as a pioneer of New German Cinema. His films often feature ambitious protagonists with impossible dreams, people with u ...

, produced by Werner Herzog Filmproduktion, and premiered on German television. The film follows the life of Dieter Dengler, in particular being shot down during the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam a ...

and his capture, imprisonment, escape, and rescue. ''Little Dieter Needs to Fly'' was released on DVD in 1998 by Anchor Bay, and on Blu-Ray in 2014 by Shout! Factory as a part of a larger collection of Herzog's films.

Summary

found a kindred spirit in the

German-American German Americans (german: Deutschamerikaner, ) are Americans who have full or partial German ancestry. With an estimated size of approximately 43 million in 2019, German Americans are the largest of the self-reported ancestry groups by the Unite ...

Navy A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and related functions. It in ...

pilot and

veteran Dieter Dengler. Like Herzog, Dengler grew up in a Germany reduced to rubble by

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, and 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 and says he decided he wanted to be a pilot after seeing one of these pilots fly past his house. At the age of 18, Dengler emigrated to the United States, where he served a two-year enlistment in the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Aerial warfare, air military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part ...

. Frustratingly, he was unable to gain a pilot's slot in that service, so he left the Air Force, attended college, and then joined the Navy. After completing flight training, he was assigned as a

Douglas A-1 Skyraider The Douglas A-1 Skyraider (formerly known as the AD Skyraider) is an American single-seat attack aircraft in service from 1946 to the early 1980s. The Skyraider had an unusually long career, remaining in front-line service well into the Jet Age ...

pilot in Attack Squadron 65 aboard the aircraft carrier . In 1966, Dengler served aboard with 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, Lieutenant Dengler launched from ''Ranger'' with three other aircraft on an

interdiction Interdiction is a military term for the act of delaying, disrupting, or destroying enemy forces or supplies en route to the battle area. A distinction is often made between strategic and tactical interdiction. The former refers to operations whose ...

mission near the Laotian border. Visibility was poor due to weather, and upon rolling in on the target, 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 of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of w ...

by the Pathet Lao and then turned over to soldiers of the Army of

North Vietnam North Vietnam, officially the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV; vi, Việt Nam Dân chủ Cộng hòa), was a socialist state supported by the Soviet Union (USSR) and the People's Republic of China (PRC) in Southeast Asia that existed f ...

. After a period of

torture Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons such as punishment, extracting a confession, interrogational torture, interrogation for information, or intimidating third parties. definitions of tortur ...

and starvation spent handcuffed to six other prisoners in a bamboo

prisoner-of-war camp A prisoner-of-war camp (often abbreviated as POW camp) is a site for the containment of enemy fighters captured by a belligerent power in time of war. There are significant differences among POW camps, internment camps, and military prisons. ...

, Dengler escaped. He was subsequently rescued after being spotted by United States Air Force pilot Eugene Deatrick. The bulk of the middle of the film consists of footage from a trip Herzog took with Dengler back to Laos and Thailand to recreate his ordeal three decades after the fact. Herzog hired locals to play the part of the captors and had Dengler retrace his steps while describing his experiences. A postscript consisting of footage from Dengler's funeral in 2001 was later added to the film. Herzog subsequently directed ''

Rescue Dawn ''Rescue Dawn'' is a 2006 American epic war drama film written and directed by Werner Herzog, based on an adapted screenplay written from his 1997 documentary film ''Little Dieter Needs to Fly''. The film stars Christian Bale and is based on the ...

'', a feature film based on the events of Dengler's capture, imprisonment, escape, and rescue. That film, starring

Christian Bale Christian Charles Philip Bale (born 30 January 1974) is an English actor. Known for his versatility and physical transformations for his roles, he has been a leading man in films of several genres. He has received various accolades, including ...

as Dengler, was released on 24 July 2007.

Cast

* Dieter Dengler as himself *

(voice) as himself/narrator * Eugene Deatrick as himself

Reception

''Little Dieter Needs to Fly'' received critical acclaim. On

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film has a 93% rating based on 14 reviews, with an average of 7.8/10. Roger Ebert gave the film 3.5 stars out of 4.

Awards

* 1997: Special Jury Award – International Documentary Filmfestival Amsterdam * 1998: IDA Award – International Documentary Association * 1999: Gold Apple – National Educational Media Network, USA * 1999: Golden Spire –

San Francisco International Film Festival The San Francisco International Film Festival (abbreviated as SFIFF), organized by the San Francisco Film Society, is held each spring for two weeks, presenting around 200 films from over 50 countries. The festival highlights current trends in i ...

* 1999: Silver FIPA –

Biarritz International Festival of Audiovisual Programming The ''International Festival of Audiovisual Programmes'' or ''International Documentary Festival FIPADOC'' ( (FIPA)), founded in 1987 by Michel Mitrani (1930-1996), was first held in Cannes in October 1987., In 2019, the FIPA became FIPADOC,,, an ...

References

General references

* Ames, Eric. ''Ferocious Reality: Documentary according to Werner Herzog''. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, 2012.
Gerhardt, Christina
"The Allied Bombing Campaign of Germany in Herzog's ''Little Dieter Needs to Fly''".
Bombs Away: Representing the Air War over Europe and Japan
'. Eds. William Rasch and Wilfried Wilms. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2006. 345-354. * Prager, Brad. ''The Cinema of Werner Herzog: Aesthetic Ecstasy and Truth''. New York: Wallflower, 2007.

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Little Dieter Needs To Fly 1997 films 1990s English-language films 1990s German-language films 1997 documentary films French documentary films German documentary films British documentary films Documentary films about military aviation Documentary films about the United States Navy Documentary films about the Vietnam War Films about aviators Films about shot-down aviators Films directed by Werner Herzog 1997 multilingual films German multilingual films British multilingual films French multilingual films 1990s British films 1990s French films 1990s German films