Home › Movies that feel like Little Dieter Needs to Fly
Movies that feel like Little Dieter Needs to Fly (1997)
Three decades after German-American pilot Dieter Dengler was shot down over Laos, he returns to the places where he was held prisoner during the early years of the Vietnam War. Accompanied by director Werner Herzog, Dengler describes in unusually candid detail his captivity, the friendships he made, and his daring escape. Not willing to stop there, Herzog even persuades his subject to re-enact certain tortures, with the help of some willing local villagers.
If you loved Little Dieter Needs to Fly, the closest films we have are Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010), Grizzly Man (2005) and Hands on a Hardbody: The Documentary (1997). All three share Little Dieter Needs to Fly's contemplative feel, which is what we rank on before quality.
Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is Cane Toads: An Unnatural History (1988).
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If Little Dieter Needs to Fly hit the spot, these will too
Both are Werner Herzog's work, and they rhyme
Werner Herzog working the same nerve twice
Both keep coming back to the same thing: a true story
Contemplative documentary in both cases
Documentary built on stillness, twice over
Both lean on stillness more than on documentary
Both are documentary through and through
Documentary of the same temperament
Both play documentary straight
The same documentary instincts
Both working the same documentary territory
Documentary approached the same way
In the mood for more contemplative? all contemplative movies →
The best-reviewed films that share Little Dieter Needs to Fly’s defining feeling.
