Werner Herzog looks at the young soldiers who make up the Miskito Indian rebel army. The Indians are an abused minority who sided with the Sandinistas in the Nicaragua civil war. However once the Sandinistas won the Indians were once more an abuse minority and had to fight once more for their rights.

The first part of the film deals with the war itself and how the adults are handling it. The second part of the film deals with the 10,11 and 12 year olds who are being recruited into the fight because there simply not enough men to carry on the fight. This is a film that is rather eerie with its reflections to the suicide bombers that have become part of life in some parts of the world. The problem is not new, with Herzog's co director telling the story about fighting in Berlin in the final weeks of the Second World War as a member of the Hitler Youth.

The film is good but not great film with the film running much too long for what it is. While it does show us something most people were not aware of, its also rather static with much of the film made up by people in large groups sitting around looking into the camera while one person speaks. The result is a desire to reach for the remote ( a rare thing for any Herzog film). Worth a look if you stumble on it, but not something worth searching for. 6.5 out of 10

... In other words, Ballad of the Little Soldier from Werner Herzog - in collaboration with photojournalist Denis Richie - is kind of impossible to give a real 'rating' to. This serves really as a document of human rights abuse - in large part with child soldiers (that is, at about the 25 minute mark) - than a typical documentary. If you've seen some of Herzog's other docs (think Fata Morgana or Herdsman of the Sun) there's none of the self conscious style one finds in his non fiction (no one looks in a stylized meditative pose at the camera). his recent Death Row docs if anything are much closer in showing the devastation of thev human spirit - point, talk, and shoot.

What you get in Little Soldier is: 'This is what's happening in Honduras, people are being killed by the Sandinistas, people are being herded up into refugee camps that will not last a month, families are torn asunder, and indigenous India children are being trained to kill in turn'. We're given a lot of narration here from Herzog, and it's necessary: this is like a Frontline piece that is trying to get in a lot of information in a short amount of time. I only wish this were longer as at 45 minute there's really only so much time, though I wonder if some of their access was limited (at one point they show the start of a battle, with adult troops off a river-boat, and as much danger Herzog could get I sensed there was only so much war documentarian in this case).

What stays with you while watching it and once it's over are the faces of these children, shown plainly, occasionally singing on camera - this may be the closest to something that isn't 'just happening' as it's going on, but here I took away that we see there is still humanity in these children, they can still sing songs and respond to joy - and then being trained to fire guns and missiles. The narration is blunt and to the point, and only near the end does Richie put his perspective on it all. It's horrific too to think how this is really the norm in many countries to this day; one thinks of those in African areas especially, or Boko Haram.

An adult soldier comments at one point the children were braver than the adults to fight against Communism... like they'd know better! Ballad of the Little Soldier may be one of the deadliest/ serious films the Bavarian director made, and it packs a gut punch for how it just looks on at this people ripped apart by the Sandinistas and the war machine that rose up in Central America in the 80's. There's fire here.

"Ballade vom kleinen Soldaten" or "Ballad of the Little Soldier" is a West German television documentary film from 1984, so this one is also already over 30 years old. It was written and directed by Werner Herzog and Denis Reichle and I am sure the involvement of the former is one of the main reasons why this film is still fairly known today and can also be found in the internet. It is the story of Nicaraguan children who have to fight as soldiers in battles because every soldier counts when it comes to victory. But is victory really achievable? Or is just wasting the lives of innocent teenagers? Decide for yourself! My own opinion is that children should never be part of a military force. (We all know Hitler did the same when his grown-up soldiers had almost all died or been captured.) Wars are already bad enough when grown-ups die I think. Admittedly, I personally did not really feel as if this film was a whole lot about Nicaragua, but it was more about the characters and could have taken place at other locations in the world too. That's not a problem at all though. I still believe it was a good watch. It is not one of my favorite Herzog films, but he delivers quality here as usual and I recommend the watch. It's also good that he and Reichle did not decide to stretch the film to a point where it would drag, but instead go for a fairly short film that easily stays under the 50-minute mark from me. Thumbs up.