Grizzly Man (2005)

[Neville]

Are you people into Werner Herzog? I find his work as impossible to analise as mesmerizing, really. And the funny thing is that his images and filming techniques are often very simple. I've watched during the years like a 40% of his work, and all I can say is that he seems to have a penchant for characters (or people, as he also makes documentaries) that pin themselves against situations they cannot control.

Anyway, I just watched one of his late efforts, a documentary on the figure of Timothy Treadwell, a young ecologist that used to spend months in the wilderness of Alaska interacting with grizzlies. He truly believed he could share something with those animals, but reality imposed itself and after many successful years of work he and his partner were devoured by the animals.

The film is mostly composed by images taken by Treadwell himself, and I found myself during a big part of the film trying to decide if I admired the guy for his courage and the strengh of his beliefs or if all the guy needed somebody who grabbed his shoulders, slaped him as hard as they could and send him right away to the nearest shrink.

Herzog does not judge him. He (simply?) opposes footage of those who knew Treadwell, heavily grounded on OUR reality to footage assembled by Treadmill himself, out in the wilderness, interacting with the animals. It's not a favourable portrait. As opposed to the accounts (post death) of his friends and family, the images of Treadwell in the wilderness struck me for his innocence, his candor, and ultimately his lack of real preparation. Not to mention that his frecuent divagations on topics such us civilisation, wildlife preservation or how his work is perceived make them sound more like personal obsessions than real issues.

Just fascinating, but I still have no clue on how Herzog does his magic.

[Ash]

I saw this and the entire time I kept thinking, "This guy's insane!"
He would get so close to some of the biggest and nastiest bears and talk loudly to them...like they were children.
Then he'd snap at them if they'd get too close or acted mean.

And that's what makes this such a good documentary.  You can't believe that this guy gets so close to these wild animals that could pretty much take him down anytime they wanted.

This was a very good film.

[Yaddo 42]

I loved the film, made me want to see more Herzog documentaires, the only other one I've seen so far was My Best Fiend.

IMO, Herzog figured out that presenting Treadwell's own tapes was the best way to present Treadwell's life and work. The raw material of video tape and audio was so much more effective to me than the testimonies of anyone who knew him, the former girlfriend/heir or the people in the area who who thought he was a crank who got what he deserved. What they had to say told you more about them than it did about Treadwell. Still interesting, but reflections rather than a view of the real man.

Most of the people I know who have seen it this tend to fall into the "he was crazy/ he was stupid" camp. I'm not one of them, I think he was well intentioned  in his concern for the bears, and he did managed to acclimate that one group of bears to him and survive. It was when he broke his familiar patterns and dealt with bears he didn't know that was the undoing of him and his girlfriend. I find him less noble in his plans for his tapes, still trying to become a "star", and how he misrepresented how alone he really was. The girlfriend made a choice to be with him, and she did go down fighting, but at some level she is a victim of his poor decisions when he came back to the area. If he had gotten no one but himself killed, I might be a little more sympathetic to him.

I could totally relate to Herzog's comment about not seeing any of the nobility or beauty that Treadwell did in the faces of the beaars. They are pure savage instinct and appetite to me. That's why I would never trust them to the degree he did. Hell, I don't trust the domesticated animals that live next to me (donkeys, cows, sheep) when I cross the fences and interact with them. And I saw my old dog's natural instinct come out when I dropped a chicken breast on the floor one time, man's best friend no more during the time it took her to eat that. I'm sure not going to chance it with something that big and dangerous.

BTW, as a huge Richard Thompson fan, I loved the soundtrack as well, a perfect compliment to the film. I was surprised Herzog didn't use Popul Vuh music again, but this worked so well.

When I saw the comedian Ron White in concert this summer he had a bit in his act about this film and a photo of an extremely large bear killed in Alakasa that was making the rounds of the internet. Managed to get some good material out of explaining how it was the funniest movie he had ever seen, even if I didn't agree with him. Sadly, most of the audience didn't seem to have any idea of what film he was talking about. And the audience was a good mix of class, education, and social types.