Little Dieter Needs to Fly Film Difficulty Ranking: 1
This documentary from German master Werner Herzog explores the balance between life and death in the epic survival story of Little Dieter.
From: Germany, Europe
Watch: Trailer, Watch on YouTube, Rent on Amazon, Buy on Amazon, Tubi
Next: Rescue Dawn, The Great Escape, The Marriage of Maria Braun
Why Watch Little Dieter Needs to Fly?
- It’s in English – go on… relax, a well deserved break from those subtitles!
- You love a good story! Dieter loves to talk, and he sure has some stories that would gather a crowd down at your local.
- Hear about the thin line between life and death, from someone’s who’s walked it.
- Just like watching Bear Grylls and Ray Mears, you can learn a few survival tips, such as: making fire from bamboo, escaping handcuffs, making your own portable BBQ .
The Breakdown
Herzog definitely knows how to make a great documentary. Known globally as one of the pillars of German cinema, Herzog has always remained true to his art – even his failures fail spectacularly. Having seen Aguirre a while back, I have been overdue for another Herzog classic. With similarities in their explorations of madness, Little Dieter Needs to Fly did not disappoint.
The film opens with a quote which says that men shall seek death, but will not find it. In San Francisco, we meet Dieter in an art shop looking at a picture of death it’s horsemen. Dieter explains that death’s horseman never came for him. Death did not want him. He hears his friends calling to him from the afterlife, but he was not chosen.
Growing up, like Herzog, in a destroyed, almost surreal Post-War Germany, Dieter always wanted to fly. There was nothing in Germany, no food, no technology, everything had been devastated in the wall. Even Herzog recounts boiling wallpaper to eat for the nutrients in the glue. Dieter’s dream of flying pushed him to America, and later Vietnam.
Before I end up narrating this whole film, I’d like to recommend it to anyone with an interest in survival, war, or just a bit of time to listen to a great story. Herzog takes Dieter back to South-East Asia and makes him recount and bring to life every moment of his ordeal as a Prisoner of War. Just like his films, Herzog doesn’t cut any corners in this documentary.
What captivated me was how long Dieter tip-toed between life and death. From his poverty-stricken childhood in Germany to his escape from the hands of the Vietcong, just as Dieter states in the introduction, it seemed like death didn’t want him. Walking the line made him delusional. It even made me feel like Dieter could have passed through one life during his time on earth, continuing in the film as undead. I’ll stop now…go watch it!
What to Watch Next
Firstly, you can watch Rescue Dawn, the feature film Herzog directed based on the events in this documentary featuring Christian Bale.
For some more epic survival stories, check out Touching the Void and The Great Escape. Touching the Void follows one man stuck in a crevasse in the Andes with a broken leg. The Great Escape is a classic WW2 film based on the true story of a mass group of prisoners of war escaping from a Nazi prison. Both are incredible and based on true stories.
Or if you’re more interested in learning a bit more about post-war Germany, check out The Marriage of Maria Braun. It’s Fassbinder’s brilliant German Hollywood-esque epic.
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