Seen in the context of director Werner Herzog’s entire career, Dieter Dengler—the German-American pilot who was shot down over Laos during the American war in Vietnam, escaped a prison camp, and survived some three weeks in the jungle—is the ultimate Herzogian hero. In Little Dieter Needs to Fly, a documentary in which Dengler tells his story and even on occasion recreates his experience for Herzog’s camera, it’s clear that Dengler not only shares Herzog’s obsessions with death and transcendence, but he also stands as the only Herzog figure able to claim victory over the director’s ultimate enemy: cruel, merciless nature. That’s a foe Timothy Treadwell (Grizzly Man) and Klaus Kinski (Aguirre the Wrath of God, Fitzcarraldo) couldn’t conquer, despite their best and varied efforts. (It’s worth noting that Herzog returned to this story in fiction form with 2007’s Rescue Dawn, starring Christian Bale as Dengler.)
(10/20/2023)
