"Little Dieter Needs to Fly"

[Richard W.]

This is an old (1998) documentary that a lot of you guys have probably known about for years, but I didn't see it until yesterday.

It's the story of Dieter Dengler, a Skyraider pilot who was shot down in 1966 and help prisoner in Laos until he escaped.

I found it on the Netflix site. If you're a subscriber, their new thing is to allow you to watch certain movies on your PC as a streaming video for "free" (automatically included in your monthly dues). The picture and sound were great.

Be sure to watch it through the credits, as there's an epilogue (very sad) at the end.

[fotobass]

I just found this movie, and it's well worth it. Pretty interesting how he got from where he started (German boy during WWII sho realized he wanted to fly when his villae was attacked by Allied fighters) to ending up as a US pilot.

I also found it on Netflix. Sign up for a two-week free trial, and there are a ton of things you can watch online. It's well worth it...otherwise I'd never have found this little gem.

[Jack Cook]

He wrote a good book called Escape from Laos and there's also great intell on his adventure on the skyraider assoc webpage.

[Steve Nelson]

Wasn't his story dramatized in a theatrical film last year?

SN

[Oscar Duck]

Movie is called "Rescue Dawn". I thought it was quite well done. Don't worry that they used a few T-6 bits as the A-1 crash site..

Unbelievable journey for him. I have a friend who was on the cat in his A-1 and launched on the Rescap...[he refuses to watch that movie - too real]

[jet1]

Wasn't his story dramatized in a theatrical film last year?

SN

but IMHO it wasn't very good, didn't do justice to the real story.

[Randy Haskin]

The documentary was good, but "Rescue Dawn" featured some of the worst acting I've ever witnessed on the silver screen.

[fotobass]

The documentary was good, but "Rescue Dawn" featured some of the worst acting I've ever witnessed on the silver screen.

This qualifies as a less-than-glowing endorsement.