Little Dieter Needs to Fly (1997) – 3/5

Life is an open door

„Little Dieter Needs to Fly“ is a co-production between Germany, the United Kingdom and France from 1997, so this one has its 25th anniversary this year already, but this was not really the reason why it was shown on the big screen one more time yesterday, but the reason was that the place where it was shown held an exhibition to honor filmmaker Werner Herzog on the occasion of his recent 80th birthday. There you also have the key component to this film being a German production, namely filmmaker Herzog in charge of writing and directing here. The man this is about is Dieter Dengler and he is also from Germany, but, just like Herzog, had a great connection with the United States in his lifetime. Dengler died in 2001 already, so also a long time ago sadly and he did not get too old, only slightly over 60. Dengler was the only American airplane pilot who managed to escape from a communist prison camp when he was over there in Asia. Actually, he managed to get away from his captors before that already, but got caught again near the water when he was looking for something to drink and they knew exactly where they would find him. His second attempt, however, turned out successful. Now we are deep into the subject already, but let’s stay with the basics first for now.: This is a relatively short documentary at only under 80 minutes and it was nominated for a Primetime Emmy even, which is not a given for a non-American production, even if Herzog is a big name in America of course, lives there too and was also fairly famous back then this was made. Besides, with who this was about and the entire subject, it was also a very American documentary without a doubt. Patriotic even. That may have helped, even if it did not win the Emmy, but lost to an even shorter documentary that dealt with crime directly in America apparently and also included a race component. Like so many do now as well.

But back to this one here: Some may say it is as much about Herzog as it is about Dengler, but I would not agree. We hear Herzog and see him occasionally as well, but only very briefly and the narration parts are also not too frequent, especially in the second half. Besides, we have Dengler himself talk about everything he experienced during the most challenging time of his life. I struggled a bit with it. I am not sure if I found him unlikable with how he was narrating, but he was speaking English really fast (especially for a non-native speaker) and reading the subtitles was also a bit of a challenge this way. Of course, only Dengler himself knew if all he said was the exact truth, but if it wasn’t, then he took the secret to his grave. I hope it was sincere. You could see that he clearly liked telling about what he experienced and you could also see that he probably did not really experience any psychological issues from his captivity and flight afterwards. Good for him. By the way, early on he reminded me a bit of Bruno Ganz physically, but I lost that thought quickly and rather saw a bit of Dieter Laser in him. Maybe just me. A lot of what he tells us was really haunting enough that there was no need for Herzog to intervene or narrate himself. No matter if he was talking about the anecdote with the stolen ring (that also had the local next to him react awkwardly in an almost funny manner how he looks at the camera), no matter if he talked about his initial flight attempt, no matter if he talked about the successful flight attempt and how he lost his closest friend there who simply got decapitated out of nowhere or if he talked about how he finally got saved by another American pilot, it was all fairly fascinating to listen to. Must admit I found Dietrick, who rescued him and who we see is much older than Dengler, more likable than Dengler himself. I see he lived until way into his 90s and just died not too long ago, which is nice to see. The turkey reunion was also special in the end. I cannot deny that, even as a vegetarian.

Another scene I would like to talk about is the one relatively early on when we have Dengler there at his home and we see what it means to him to be able to open and close the door anytime he wants. This totally makes sense. Imagine you would have to live in a home that has always open doors, so everybody can enter even when you sleep. That would make you almost homeless. Or the other way around where you could not leave whenever you feel the need to. Seeing this as something special and not just a given is what you often hear from people who were held prisoner at some point, also how they like to keep doors open at work for example because they simply cannot deal with the situation of being inside a room with no visible way to get out, even if the door is not even locked. This may have seemed a bit strange at first when he kept opening and closing the door, but then it turned into one of the best segments from the movie. Still, it is Herzog in charge and you know with him the fine line between fiction and reality always becomes a bit blurry here and there and this was for example the case when we see the guys who play Dengler’s captors when they reenact what happened back in the jungle. From a comment by Herzog, we knew these were the nicest fellas really and they were just playing the bad guys. They are also not credited, so it was hardly acting. They did not have to talk for example. The music is also an interesting choice here, especially the song you hear briefly before the closing credits and that was a traditional chant apparently and I thought it worked very well. It was also nice to see Dengler there in the middle of what meant the world to him, namely all these military planes and he is enjoying it so much. This was also nice closure I think and did not make you too depressed about the epilogue that they added much later because Dengler was still alive when this film got made and released, but then we see footage from Dengler’s funeral in 2001, so almost five years after this film was made. Definitely a bit unusual to add something like this to an existing movie several years later. There it was also nice to see the formation up in the air from the specific aircraft models that Dengler really appreciated and how they were flying above his grave.

You can see his fascination also from the film’s title. The „little“ can perhaps be explained by the fact that Dengler was not a tall man in stature or also that he was really young when he was over there in Asia, even if the title and flying aspect kinda refer to his whole life. We also hear a bit about the childhood, namely how Dengler struggled hard in the years after the end of World War II in terms of starvation. The elaboration on what his mother cooked back then because it included nutritive substances was really something else and there you can see the state Germany was in at that point. A slight parallel to Herzog who also originates from the south of Germany and was also born during harsh times, even if he did not have it as hard as Dengler back then. The parallel between Dengler’s starving as a child and the fat turkey in the end was quite something though. Also you can include a reference to Dengler’s weight when he got rescued as he did not even weigh 50 kilos at that point I think they said. As for Herzog, he had more struggles with the post-production maybe than really with the shooting of this documentary. He was used to filming in remote areas of the planet and he was also in his mid50s already when he made this, so it was nothing new for him if you look at the places where he shot films before that. The post-production I just mentioned was an issue because there is a second version of this documentary that is considerably shorter, under 45 minutes I think and that was produced for the long-running Terra X documentary series on ZDF, a big German television station, the one in charge of showing Herzog’s effort there was not happy with what he was sent to from Herzog and wrote several pages about all he considered wrong with this documentary, clearly because he was biased at that point already. There was just no way an established filmmaker like Herzog should have been approached like this, but that is another story and now we are not talking about these letters, but the full-length film we have here. One of many criticisms was for example that hunger was feature too strongly in this film, another was the music and another was that Herzog was narrating himself. I am glad that all these aspects were included here the way Herzog wanted them to be included.

I think this is pretty much it then. Finally, let me also say that at this point you can watch this documentary on Youtube if you want to and maybe as a little prologue or epilogue for yourself, you can check out the ten-minute clip of Dengler on the American show „I’ve Got a Secret“, which I found also really nice. As I come to the end of my review, also more information on the end of Dengler’s life as he was, unlike others, very happy with what Herzog did here and liked the outcome a lot. When he knew he was dying almost five years after this film, he gave Herzog explicit permission to turn his life story also into a movie with actors and there Dengler was played by Welsh actor Christian Bale, then not yet an Oscar winner and the outcome is what many consider Herzog’s finest live action movie, even if with him you can never really draw a clear line there with what he does in the documentary genre as well. As you can see from my rating, I would not say this documentary we have here was a huge success or one of my big favorites from 1997, but there is also not the slightest bit of doubt for me that it gets a thumbs-up and positive recommendation. Also thanks to scenes like the one with the jellyfish. It is surely worth checking out and the running time is also not a big surprise because Herzog even made many films that ran for an hour only or even under. Go see „Little Dieter Needs to Fly“.