Little Dieter Needs to Fly

As a young kid the German Dieter Dengler dreamed of becoming an American test pilot. Het grew up in post-war Germany. He has hardly known his father, as the latter was killed in World War II. At age 18 Dengler left Germany with only a quarter in his pocket. After drifting about for some time in San Francisco he enrolled in the American army to fight in Vietnam. During his first mission in 1966 he was shot and captured right away by the Vietcong. Herzog tells Dengler’s life story in four episodes: the man, the dream, the punishment and the redemption. Dengler’s own story of his childhood and his account of the cruel tortures he underwent in captivity, as well as of his miraculous escape, are very gripping. Herzog himself is the narrator and the interviewer, but apart from that he stays in the background as filmmaker. Like in many of his previous documentaries, he does not take the distinction between fact and fiction too serious. In doing so, he remains loyal to his creed that art contains more truth than reality.