Little Dieter Needs to Fly tells the story of Dieter Dengler, an Air Force pilot who was shot down in Vietnam and miraculously survived in the jungle for quite some time. In other hands this narrative could become maudlin, melodramatic, and jingoistic, but fortunately we have Werner Herzog and his trademark thickly-accented narration to remind us that all in life is futile. We have the perverse, hopeless landscape of a film like Lessons of Darkness, but Dieter's story gives us at least a mild hope of escaping that world. At times the power of the story and Dengler's matter-of-fact recounting of it overpowers Herzog's heavy stylizing, and a times they work together. It's a quite interesting dynamic.
Some of the filming choices don't quite work -- take, for instance, the decision to have Dengler re-enact some aspects of his captivity with confused-looking Vietnamese villagers -- whereas others are downright moving -- the Mongolian throat-music, or the final shot of the field full of airplanes, suggesting how the government weaponizes and exploits the childish desire to fly. There are also times where one could accuse the film of being a simple "inspiring" survival story, but I think for the most part it rises above that genre while simultaneously serving as the best example of it.
Some of the filming choices don't quite work -- take, for instance, the decision to have Dengler re-enact some aspects of his captivity with confused-looking Vietnamese villagers -- whereas others are downright moving -- the Mongolian throat-music, or the final shot of the field full of airplanes, suggesting how the government weaponizes and exploits the childish desire to fly. There are also times where one could accuse the film of being a simple "inspiring" survival story, but I think for the most part it rises above that genre while simultaneously serving as the best example of it.