Werner Herzog directs Dieter Dengler, Eugene Deatrick and himself in this documentary character study where a poor German immigrant who became a U.S. fighter pilot talks about his capture by the Viet Cong.

“Duane, my friend, he was gone, and from then on my motions, my progress, became mechanical. In fact, I couldn’t care less if I would live or die. But then later on, there was this bear, this beautiful bear that was following me. It was circling me in fact sometimes. It was gone and I missed it. It was just like a dog, it was just like a pet. Of course I knew this bear was there, he was waiting to eat me. When I think about it, this bear meant death to me. And it is really ironic. That’s the only friend I had at the end, was death.” I could listen to Dieter Dengler talk about his series of unfortunate events for hours in that teutonic upbeat monotone. Herzog knows he has gold. Full of wonderful moments, bleak and humane.

9

Perfect Double Bill: Rescue Dawn (2006)

Check out my wife Natalie’s Point Horror blog https://cornsyrup.co.uk

We also do a podcast together called The Worst Movies We Own. It is available on Spotify or here https://letterboxd.com/bobbycarroll/list/the-worst-movies-we-own-podcast-ranking-and/