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Little Dieter Needs to Fly | 
 enlarge | Director: Werner Herzog
Actors: Werner Herzog, Dieter Dengler
Studio: Starz / Anchor Bay
Category: DVD
List Price: $14.98
Buy New: $7.21
You Save: $7.77 (52%)
New (38) Used (9) from $7.21
Avg. Customer Rating:  29 reviews
Sales Rank: 37324
Format: Color, Dvd-video, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), German (Original Language)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 74
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: DV15206
UPC: 013131520699
EAN: 0013131520699
ASIN: B000M7FO0M
Theatrical Release Date: October 2, 1998
Release Date: March 27, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: BRAND NEW AND FACTORY SEALED
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Product Description
Educational Media Network-Winner Golden Apple 1999 Biarritz International Festival of Audiovisual Programming-Winner Silver FIPA 1999 San Francisco International Film Festival-Winner Golden Spire 1998 International Documentary Association- Winner IDA Award 1997 Amsterdam International Documentary Film Festival-Winner Special Jury Award As a young boy Dieter Dengler watched as Allied planes destroyed his village. From that instant he knew that he wanted to fly. So at 18 he moved to America enlisted in the Navy and was promptly shipped off to Vietnam. During one of his first missions however Dengler was shot down over Laos and taken prisoner. Despite torture and starvation-at one point he weighed 85 pounds-he escaped and after a harrowing journey through the jungle on foot returned home. Today even comfort and success cannot dispel the demons of his past. In this remarkable award- winning documentary director Werner Herzog returns to the jungle with Dengler to tell an incredible tale of courage and survival against impossible odds.System Requirements:Run Time: 74 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: NR UPC: 013131520699 Manufacturer No: DV15206
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| Customer Reviews: Read 24 more reviews...
 Mis-titled, but compelling tale November 26, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
No one will argue with the subject's heroism. But his presence as a movie star is another matter. Dengler speaks in a rapid, nonstop monologue, with no breaths in between. It gets annoying real fast, not to mention the German accent like something out of Hogan's Heroes. His tale of survival is an astonishing one, later dramatized by Herzog in a big Hollywood movie. The title is unfortunate, however. Some may mistake this for a children's fairy tale. That it is not.
 Herzog on top September 14, 2008
Little Dieter Needs To Fly is another in the remarkable body of Werner Herzog's filmic work that is without peer. Having recently rewatched it on DVD, nearly a decade after its initial US release in 1997, it has lost none of its power, and one can see its influence on documentaries as diverse as Herzog's own recent Grizzly Man and Errol Morris's Academy Award winning The Fog Of War. Like the former, it details, in its far too brief 74 minutes, the life of an interesting American. Like the latter it gives a peek at a side of war that few see. Yes, we see the violence and the heroism, but as The Fog Of War brought us into the mind of one of last century's foremost warmongers, this film allows us a peek at the life of a grunt who is captured by the enemy, tortured, and ultimately triumphs. Except, in no way, shape, nor form, is the film as simplistic nor upbeat as my brief description of it. Nor is Little Dieter Needs To Fly's titular subject, Dieter Dengler, and immigrant German who survived the depredations of the Nazis (we find out, as example, that in his hometown, Wildburg, in the Black Forest, his grandfather was the only man not to vote for Hitler, and suffered brutally for that stand) post-World War Two Germany, and his own imprisonment at the hands of the Vietcong, when his Air Force jet was shot down over Laos on February 1st, 1966.... While the title of the film, and the idea of Dengler's passion for becoming a pilot, stirred by the impression Allied fighter planes made on him when they razed his town, as a child, make one believe that Dengler is the central subject of the film, this is not true. The subject is Dengler's survival, or, more precisely, his human will, all human will. The details of Dengler's romantic life are too Hollywood and staid an aspect to interest Herzog. Nor is the fact that he won a Purple Heart, Medal of Honor, the D.F.C., and the Navy Cross. That thing which pushed Dengler to survive so much, and remain such a relatively upbeat man (although there are glimpses of darker sides), is what is at the center of this film, and all of Herzog's canon. Dieter Dengler's `distant barbaric dream' of his past is fully ripened Herzog Country, and the use of a Madagascan chant, Oay Lahy E, during many jungle scenes, among other excellent touches in the score, show Herzog is, perhaps along with only Martin Scorsese, the best manipulator of image and music in film. Long may he merge!
 Fly boy . . . September 13, 2008
Well, it's Herzog. Expect anything. On the surface, this film seems to tell a fairly straightforward story about a young pilot shot down over Laos during the Vietnam War and escaping the captors who have taken him prisoner as a POW. During the election campaigns of 2008, it's difficult not to watch this film without thinking of John McCain, who must have had similar experiences. Meanwhile, if you know anything about PTSD, you are wondering constantly if what you are witnessing is a man recovered from the trauma of his captivity (and his youth in post-war Germany) or a patchwork of adaptive behaviors that mask a deep and profound disorder. We do not learn (unless I missed it) that Dengler was married three times and then died only a few years later from ALS. He talks nonstop in almost machine-gun fashion, referring to himself in the third person, his life seeming to have turned a long time ago into an adventure story that he has told many times before.
I sense that Herzog is immersing us in the ambiguities of all this, while making no judgments of his own, as if this man's story is so outside the norm that nothing can really be said conclusively about it that would be in the least bit more illuminating than what he captures with the camera and then edits together. What potential material, for instance, was not recorded, and what was excluded from the final cut? and how many different movies could Herzog have made out of all his footage? These are questions that apply to any documentary, but they cry out to be asked of this one. The re-enactments in the jungle with men playing the role of his captors need some context that Herzog does not provide. As Dengler hugs and reassures one of the men as they sit together, you marvel at who these other men are and what the making of this film could have meant to them. Herzog reveals nothing.
The last scene, appropriately an aerial shot, is pure Herzog in its ambiguity. On one level it is clearly a boy's dream come true. On another it overwhelms with the implications that come with an adult's understanding of the immense cost of of war. Then there is simply the breathtaking panorama of what seems to be a mothballed landscape of grounded aircraft. The film is worth seeing for its extraordinary view of how a single human life can be shaped by one extremity after another. How many stars do you give that? I'm not sure.
Inspirational August 11, 2008
One of the best examples of the power of the human spirit to conquer adversity ever made. Far more detailed then the film version (made as Rescue Dawn) with Christian Bale although interestingly made by the same director.
The grim visage of war July 17, 2008
From a childhood in post-war Germany, Dieter Dengler saw a plane buzz his window. He immediately knew his goal in life was to be a pilot.
At the age of 18, Dieter left Germany for America. With nearly nothing, his pockets and stomach empty, he joined the US military with promises of becoming a pilot. He soon learned that his dreams of flying would be postponed while he was assigned to odd jobs. Without being deterred, Dieter got the education necessary to become a pilot, thereby fulfilling his dream. Little did he know the freedom of flight that had brought about great joy would also serve as the catalyst for the harrowing nightmare of being shotdown during a mission in Vietnam, and eventually becoming a POW.
The heart of the story is the very detailed account of how he was downed, with the explosions and blinding lights, and his subsequent capture. It's amazing the difficulties a POW has to endure, and until articulated firsthand, it's nearly impossible to truly empathize. Dealing with psychological torment and various forms of torture like a bags of ants over his head, the vivid explanations and details of how Dieter survived - along with a few fellow prisoners - is not only nearly impossible to fathom, but spell-bindingly mermerizing. The dysentery tale is particularly cringe-worthy.
During one brief stretch, some U.S. survival guide footage is displayed for almost comical purposes. It's sad how out-dated and nearly worthless the tips were, and reinforced the old thought that military leaders learn how to fight the previous enemy just in time for a new, different enemy. It's no surprise that Dieter and many others were captured.
With little emotion or transition, Dieter easily sways from demoralized captive to lethal wisp, managing to kill several guards during an escape attempt shootout. How he survived is anyone's guess. With a loss of contact from all but one other prisoner, mangled feet carrying his emaciated body through the jungle during torrential downpour of the monsoon season, and head to toe coverage in mud, blood, and leeches, it would be understandable, maybe even forgivable, if he had simply given up and allowed death to take him. As Dieter mentions, however, it is ironic that in his most dire moments, his only friend and companion was a bear that wanted to eat him, and since that moment never came, death just didn't seem to want him.
In the end, one has to wonder if the various reenactments and the heartfelt story has done anything to assuage the demons eating at Dieter Dengler. Countless years after he was shot down and tortured, he doesn't appear any worse for the wear. There is, however, his vivid memory of the events, as well as his candid story-telling ability. There is no doubt of post-Vietnam stress and nightmares that must haunt him and other former POWs on a daily basis. It's fortunate that Dieter's story was made before his recent passing, and it's a superb lasting legacy for such a courageous hero.
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