Childhood dreams of flight ground German-born U.S. Navy pilot Dieter Dengler in the jungles of Vietnam, as first a prisoner of war, and second a prisoner of Herzog’s camera as he re-enacts a harrowing tale of escape and survival against all odds. From the horrors of a childhood marred by World War II to his career with the American armed forces, the chatty raconteur was of such fascination to Herzog that he later revisited the tale with the Christian Bale-starrer, RESCUE DAWN. 

Restoration courtesy of Shout! Factory and the American Genre Film Archive.