I Only Wish There Were More Dieters in the World
"Little Dieter Needs to Fly" is one of the most amazing documentaries I've ever seen. The anecdote of post-war Germany in which Dieter and his brothers gathered wallpaper from bombed-out houses for their mother to boil the nutrients from the glue so that they wouldn't starve to death - now that's the kind of history you won't read in your college textbook. Nor will you hear much about prisoners of war so toughened by their childhood hardships that they retain the determination even under torture to refuse to sign affidavits against their will which condemn, and compromise their duty and honor to, their country.
This movie has no political bias toward either the right or toward the left - a characteristic of Herzog that I completely admire. He displays the spectacularly powerful and impressive extravaganza of destruction as seen from the air, then personalizes the impact of that destruction on the people living through it on the ground. Herzog ends up weaving a beautifully delineated anti-war narrative by showing us the consequences of war to the victor and the vanquished in the contexts of both World War II and Vietnam.
What I found the most interesting was the way Dieter appeared to harbor absolutely no resentment toward either the U.S. pilots invading Germany, nor his Laotian captors. His obvious affection for both his adopted country and for the villagers of Laos showed me a person brimming with goodwill. Ultimately Dieter's victory is less that of a victim over his persecutors than of a man's soul over his own thoughts, attitude, and environmental limits. This is what I see as the common spiritual thread that links Dieter to so many of Herzog's other heroes.
Also like many of Herzog's other multidimensional characters, Dieter was a man somewhat unbalanced by his horrific experiences. Yet his heart was so big, his sense of humor so wonderful, his intelligence, self-esteem, humility and character were so great that I grieve tremendously for his loss and for the loss of all the strong, tough-minded people like him. Where are these people today? They are few and far between, that's for sure. In today's self-obsessed, overindulgent, whining, pathetic, weak-willed hedonistic and celebrity-driven culture, real men like Dieter seem to be merely mythical, legendary and historic. At the same time, thanks to Herzog's documentary, we can at least see that such men really did exist for us to embrace, admire and aspire to emulate. I absolutely adore the way Herzog got out of the way and let Dieter tell his wonderful story, and I can't wait to see his dramatization of it in Thunder Dawn.
I only wish there were more Dieters in the world. I'm so happy that Herzog introduced me to this one.