Little Dieter Needs to Fly

The editing reveals some obviously orchestrated moments, but fly-on-the-wall documentaries have never been in Herzog's interest. It's interesting how objective Dengler is in recounting his story. Fantastic music choices and great use of archival footage.

A bit different than Herzog's other documentaries, seeing how it's a little more straight forward and less ecentric. Besides being different in style it was still great, just because of the amazing story Dieter Dengler had to tell.

I felt like Dieter didn't really need to trace his steps for therapy, but Herzog was intent on staging a trauma reconstruction like Jimmy Stewart in Vertigo. It gets interesting results - unlike previous subjects (Walter Steiner, Reinhold Messner) Dengler is nearly unflappable despite Werner clearly trying to get him flapped. He tells his story straight and it's captivating as such.

An enthralling documentary about a horrific experience and a man who was forever change by it and still managed to not be consumed by hatred. This is the most accessible Herzog film I've seen yet.

Herzog is smart enough to understand how narrative and reality are too intertwined in our relationship with film, so he has Dengler reenact his life story through the jungles of Laos and Thailand. It's a jarring idea at first, seems a little insensitive, and then you realize the intelligence of the film's self-awareness, and of its ability to organically show us Dengler's lingering trauma.

Dieter Dengler shows unspeakable courage in revisiting the sites of his greatest struggles and privations and narrating his story in harrowing, unflinching detail. By the end of the film I felt every inch of his sadness and will to persevere.

This film left me speechless. An amazing, touching and also terrifying story. I deeply respect Dieter Dengler, what an incredible man he was

It is possible for Herzog to be uninteresting? Even for five minutes? I've only seen a few of his films, but so far the answer appears to be "no". Dieter is another incredible tale of a man facing overwhelming odds -- a Herzog hallmark -- that cares to take enough time to examine how and why he was able to overcome. Dieter's story is amazing...nearly miraculous, and it's told by the man himself with such sharpness and lucidity that it's hard not to be captivated by him and his tale of survival.

An incredible journey with a man who is stronger then anyone I have ever met. Herzog may have staged and invented some of the elements of the film (like most of his documentaries) but the emotion is still there and very much real. The end scene of the funeral brought a tear to my eye, an excellent tribute to an incredible man.

overall good, not great, but features two classic herzog scenes - when get gets dieter to refer to the fear of death as being similar to jellyfish and the closing shot of the airfield.

A bit too staged for me... I don't just mean the re-enactments, but even a lot of Dengler's monologues feel very rehearsed. Furthermore, his story is not all that fascinating. Harsh and sad and ultimately uplifting, perhaps, but not fascinating.

Something screams selfish to me in the way Herzog tries to reconstruct the emotion and experience from this story that is truly incredible and photographic, but leaves skepticism in my opinion, from the overly dramatic details.

The inherent silliness in the way this was presented: a motor-mouthed, straight-faced account of true atrocity-- questioning the way stories and skepticism function. Sometimes Herzog's editing gives the sense that he doesn't quite believe what he is hearing either.

Yankee go home!

O pequeno Dieter precisa voar. Sorry Herzog, mas esse não desceu. Tratar um cara desses como herói que viu sua casa ser bombardeada e invés de virar um pacifista foi em busca de se tornar opressor... não apenas com um filme, mas com dois. Tudo nesse filme me incomodou demais, mas o pior é a forma colonizadora que o Herzog trata os nativos das suas locações, mas esperar o que de um europeu, né. BlurayRip no MakingOff.

An interesting story presented in an uninteresting way

This film is brilliant. Dieter is so engaging and truly was an amazing man. Absolutely an incredible documentary.

A-

Better than Rescue Dawn, the movie based on these events.

A companion piece of sorts to 'The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner' in that both Steiner and Dengler needed to fly. But in very different ways. Again, Herzog touches on being-toward-death with Dengler's closest companion at the end a bear that wanted to eat him and in that embodied death (with Timothy Treadwell releasing exactly this in 'Grizzlyman'). Dengler's re-enactments of his imprisonment are perverse, but he seems to revel in these moments. Almost, I dare say, a form of enjoyment.

It's not only an amazing story, but Dengler is an amazing story teller. Herzog would later remake this as a dramatic film with Christian Bale as Dengler, but it's this documentary that must be seen.

I usually find these talking head type documentaries rather bland but Dengler's story is so incredible that's almost impossible not to be captivated by what he has to say.

Dengler's survival tale is an amazing one, and it's told through the thoughtful and compassionate eye of a considerate and impassioned filmmaker. I say impassioned as Herzog's directorial choices in terms of storytelling, editing, and music were all great, at least compared to his later work like 'Into the Abyss' which I happened to have seen a few days ago and had left me somewhat disappointed. A definite must see!

An incredible story presented without sensationalism. Herzog lets Dieter talk and is not too intrusive. Watching this is all the more remarkable today given the circumstances of Dieter's death shortly after this filmed.

Get pissy as hell if I have to be in a room that's kinda stuffy.

Kudos to Dieter for not offering up a Hallmark 'return to the scene of the crime' scene and laying on some thick artificial nostalgia. Dieter retreads his steps as a hostage in an overly accurate fashion. Herzog may have tried to elicit these emotions but Dieter ensured story took centre stage here. Love that throat singing.

(2nd viewing, 1st:90)

Making Rescue Dawn basically renders Little Dieter Needs to Fly into essentially a behind-the-scenes featurette for the Rescue Dawn DVD. But Werner, as per his usual, finds arresting ways to follow Dieter's blow-by-blow on-screen narration of his harrowing experience 30 years earlier.

Weird seeing this after Rescue Dawn. Dengler's unemotional, motor-mouthed anecdotes are very strange to watch.

Herzog's fingerprints are certainly there, but he takes the backseat to Dieter Dengler's awe-inspiring tale of survival. It truly is a marvel.

An interesting Herzogian character study. In some ways it's more interesting than Rescue Dawn in that it captures a certain essence of Dieter that the fictional film can not, but as a tale of events, especially the first half, doesn't quite have the same effect. Both films have the same tunnel vision, focusing on the individual and ignoring the wider conflict surrounding him, and there's nothing wrong with that it does feel a bit lacking. Still, taken on its own terms it works quite well.

jellyfish death

Gripping and entertaining documentary, thanks in no small part to Dengler's charisma, and affable, fast-talking presentation. Good job by Herzog too.

An excellent film about a man who loves to fly and who does what he has to, using his wits and ingenuity, to survive. Rescue Dawn is based on this true story.

Although it's one insane story that Dieter has to tell, Herzog's usual shenanigans, and his obsessive focus on the excentric Dieter makes both of them seem equally crazy, which is possibly what was intended, but comes at the penalty of a slight disenchantment with the subject at hand.

Another fantastic Herzog offering.

"Death did not want Dieter Dengler, whose life often sounds like that of a fairy tale character thrust into an existential wonderland." - Ed Gonzalez

You don't care about any film related stuff when Dieter Dengler is telling the most amazing story ever.

Pretty good, but it felt incomplete, especially at only 70ish minutes. Nice companion to Rescue Dawn.

Touching.

It's an amazing story, but the movie didn't grab ahold of me the way I was expecting it to. Perhaps it's due to the fact that I saw Rescue Dawn first, which was full of so much more detail. I also felt a couple of the staged scenes in Vietnam were a little corny. Still a good movie, but I really prefer Rescue Dawn.

A very interesting documentary on Dieter Dengler, a man who was shot down and became a prisoner of war in Vietnam. Dengler, like director Herzog himself, is endearingly eccentric and and always interesting. A must-watch if you have seen Rescue Dawn, the film Herzog later directed based on Dieter's experiences.

It was kind of an unusual experience seeing 2006's Rescue Dawn before this film. I would say that Rescue Dawn is undoubtedly a superior film, but Dengler himself is much more interesting than one could ever dramatize on screen, which justifies the existence of this documentary. Again, I saw the films out of order, so make of that what you will. The various reenactments featuring Dengler himself stand out as truly great moments, the like of which I've never seen on film before.

Herzog did it again. He knows how to 'push' people to tell a great story.

Not quite as incredible a watch as Herzog's other docs, very straightforward and very little strange going on. A lot of Dieter's talks feel a little too rehearsed to feel like it's quite as intimate as some of Herzog's best as well. However, it is very well shot with some fantastic on location work and Dieter's story is interesting and very touching.

Herzog takes a step back, and only at times can you see his true brilliance. The story here, though, is one that needs less of Herzog's directing prowess to shine, but it could have been better with more of the sweeping, long, fantastic shots that Herzog wins my heart with.

Dieter's tale is incredible (though, as it turns out may not be exactly true) and Dieter himself is a very interesting (and talkative) man. Fascinating stuff as always from Werner Herzog!

Great because it doesn't concentrate on the unlikeliness of the story, it's about Dieter's amazing character. It's quite short, and I reckon there must have been enough footage to make a couple of different films. I have no idea why I am rating this lower than King of Kong, but I am.

Good.

A little disjointed but the way Dieter tells his story is great, and the story is just astounding.

In my country you get to hear quite a few (including first-hand) accounts by people whose fighter plane crashed and have survived imprisonment in a hostile 3rd world country not averse to cruelty and torture. But I've never ever heard a story more harrowing than the one told by Dieter Dengler to Werner Herzog.

I think I would have liked this more had I not seen Rescue Dawn first, as it's more or less a retelling of the events in that movie but in documentary form. It's certainly solid in every respect, albeit a little less Herzog-like than I would have expected. Definitely a good documentary although it just lacks the certain punch you'd expect; which is probably my problem, not the film's.

Fascinating documentary.

The story of Dieter Dengler is an extraordinary one, and it couldn't have been told any better. Going through the jungle and re-enacting what happened to Dengler was a treat. The ending was also fantastic. A very good documentary from the legendary Werner Herzog.