What it’s about
As a young boy in Nazi Germany, Dieter Dengler watched Allied planes bomb his village and knew immediately he wanted to become a pilot. Emigrating to the U.S. at age 18, with pennies to his name, Dieter enlisted in the Navy and was shipped out to Vietnam in 1966. On his first mission, his plane was shot down and Dieter was imprisoned by the Vietcong. Miraculously, he engineered a daring escape…
Why we love it
Acclaimed filmmaker Werner Herzog (“Grizzly Man”) has an eye for the bizarre, and here he tells the incredible story of a true-life escape in this engrossing documentary, the basis for his own Hollywood feature “Rescue Dawn,” starring Christian Bale. Dengler endured horrific torture and starvation at the hands of his captors and then experienced even more nightmarish trials after he fled into the jungle. Breaking in with his own dry, philosophical ruminations, Herzog patiently retraces Dengler’s steps, giving us a portrait of a uniquely heroic man caught in extreme circumstances.