Midway through Little Dieter Needs to Fly — which recalls Dieter Dengler’s experiences as a POW during the Vietnam War — the eponymous pilot has his hands bound, and he’s led through the harsh Vietnamese brush in a recreation of his hardship some thirty years prior. It is an enormous masochism on the part of Herzog (one that would have been superseded by the airing of Timothy Treadwell’s death tape in Grizzly Man), but in Dieter, as in so many other men, Herzog has found a kindred spirit, and Dieter seems more than willing to aid in his own exploitation. He shows us around his home in Northern California. It is spacious, with many windows, none with shades, and an enormous cornucopia of a kitchen. He walks straight through this, leading us to a hidden closet that contains enough rice to live on for three months. It is at this moment that Dieter’s exploitation in this film is realized as only a superficial entertainment to the viewer, and more affectingly an attempted exorcism of his past experiences.
by Rumsey Taylor | Source: Anchor Bay Entertainment DVD
30 Jul 2007 10:24 AM | Submit Comment