This is such a fantastic film. I haven’t seen Rescue Dawn, but I cannot imagine that it would add up to anything as funny and emotional as what Herzog and Dieter put together here. I kept thinking about all of the camping trips that I went on when I was in the Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts. Every summer, there was summer camp, where my father would force me to spend a week in the summer heat, with no private bathrooms, terrible cafeteria food, and sweaty boys who hadn’t discovered deodorant yet. I hated it, every year, and I thought it was hell. Hearing Dieter explain his circumstances when he was captured, though, makes all of what I endured seem like heaven. Dieter tells his story as if he’s been waiting 30 years for someone to listen to him. He spouts out detail after detail of what he went through with a very focused and energetic demeanor; he sounds like he could be calling an auction.
The film is also occasionally hilarious. During the ‘training’ video about what men in the military ought to do if they are stranded in a jungle, with commentary by Herzog, I couldn’t stop laughing. It was also amusingly bizarre that Dieter was recounting his experiences in front of present day Vietnamese villagers (like those in the poster above). He would tell an insane story of brutality and torture, and then turn and have an awkward laugh with a man standing next to him. It was also very bizarre that Dieter was re-experiencing the moments, like being tied up and blindfolded and being led through the jungle. There is this odd fascination that he has with this experience in his life, as if he bases his entire life on it. I got the impression that he’d come to fetishize his treatment during his imprisonment, and perhaps looked back on it fondly.
Herzog does an amazing job visualizing Dieter’s story. He found some stunning archival footage of decaying cities, soldier’s in wartime, and, most impressive, films from cameras that were attached to planes that were dropping bomb after bomb on villages. His commentary is less aimless here than I’ve ever heard it, but he still shows how he is such a great storyteller.