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Little Dieter Needs to Fly
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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.
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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.
- Won Special Jury Award
- International Documentary Association 1998
- Won IDA Award Feature Documentaries
- National Educational Media Network, USA 1999
- Won Gold Apple
- San Francisco International Film Festival 1999
- Biarritz International Festival of Audiovisual Programming 1999
- Won Silver FIPA Documentary and Essay
- Emmy Awards 1999
- Nominated Outstanding Non-Fiction Special
- Won Golden Spire Television - History
- Las Vegas Film Critics Society Awards 2000
- Nominated Sierra Award Best Documentary
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.
- Little Dieter Needs to Fly at the Internet Movie Database
- Little Dieter Needs to Fly's awards page at IMDb
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