Have you been wondering what Werner Herzog has been up to? I have. He's that director, artist, madman of intense cinema, which you should leap to the Internet Movie Database and find his films at your local video store and sit down for a treat. It seems that Werner has been up in Utah, the University there of, by the way. He's been showing some of his old films and a new documentary he's shot. Well, it looks like he's thinking of turning this INCREDIBLE story into a feature film. Take a read and imagine what Herzog would do with that material. Harrowing doesn't even begin to cover it. One can only pray that Klaus (mutual madman) Kinski would be able to team up with Werner again. Too bad he's been gone for soooo long.
What's up, Harry? The Living Tribunal reporting from Utah. I'm assuming you and your readers (including me) are fans of Werner Herzog and might want to know what he's up to. Well, he's spending three days at the University of Utah this week talking about and screening his films. Last night there was a kind of clips retrospective. Certain portions of his films were shown, including AGUIRRE: THE WRATH OF GOD and FITZCARRALDO which Herzog would talk about with the audience. Herzog had some interesting stories about Klaus Kinski, the star of AGUIRRE, including Herzog's threat to shoot the actor "eight times in the head. The last bullet," the director told us, "would be saved for me."
This afternoon Herzog introduced his latest film, the English-language documentary LITTLE DIETER NEEDS TO FLY. The movie is about a German-born pilot who enlisted in the United States Air Force so he could finally achieve his dream of being a pilot only to be shot down in Vietnam. The film then tells of Dieter's tribulations of being a POW and his attempt to escape the camp. This is one of the most harrowing documentaries I've ever seen. Dieter got bamboo roots shoved into his veins,when the VietCong wouldn't feed him 5 day old deer guts he would have to capture a rat and share it amongst the other prisoners. Their escape into the jungle was made barefoot and when Dieter found himself alone in the bush he took solace in the companionship of a bear that was following around. Soon, however, Dieter realized the bear was just waiting for him to die so the bear could have an easy meal.
Herzog had some interesting comments about the film before it was shown. Herzog and Diter had wanted to swim across the river bordering Thailand and Laos with a small video camera so they could film the site where Dieter crashed as the Laotian government prohibited a snactioned shoot. Wiser heads on the crew prevailed. We were also told that this wasn't a "pure" documentary. Herzog sometimes asked Dieter to retell his stories up to six times so Herzog could choose the best "performance" and get one that had the most amount of information. The other recreations, with Dieter--now at least 50--tied up and running through the jungle were quite intense.
Finally, Herzog told us he will most likely be turning this documentary into a feature film. Trust me, Harry, _that_ would be cool..
