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Movie poster: Little Dieter Needs to Fly (1997)
🎬 Movie

Little Dieter Needs to Fly

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1997 · 77 min Documentary
7.5 / 10 · TMDB

German boy Dieter Dengler dreams of the sky from childhood. His obsession with flight carries him from the rubble of postwar Germany to America, where he becomes a U.S. Navy pilot. In 1966, his plane is shot down over Laos during the Vietnam War. Captured and subjected to brutal torture, Dieter engineers a daring escape through impenetrable jungle. His tale transcends mere survival; it is a raw testament to the human spirit's unyielding hunger for freedom and the fulfillment of a lifelong obsession that gives the film its title.

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📋 Film Details

Year 1997
Country Germany
Genre Documentary
Director Werner Herzog
Runtime 77 min.
Rating TMDB: 7.5/10 (95 votes)

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🎬 MovieFinder's Take

Werner Herzog crafts not a documentary but a hypnotic parable of will. Scenes of Dengler retracing his steps pulse with a near-mystical intensity.

What lingers after the credits is the anatomy of a miracle—how an obsession, first a dream then a profession, ultimately becomes a lifeline. A quiet awe for the power of a single fixed idea remains. — MovieFinder Editorial

Director: Werner Herzog

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Hypnotic testimony, jungle as labyrinth, ghosts of the past haunting the present.

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