Grizzly Man (Werner Herzog, 2005): USA

Reviewed by Byron Potau. Viewed on DVD.

Grizzly Man

One of the main forces of the New German cinema of the 1970s, Werner Herzog seemed to have dipped into relative obscurity after the 1980s. Herzog has since pulled himself back into the forefront of cinema, his highly acclaimed 2005 documentary Grizzly Man being one of the highlights of his second coming.

The film’s subject, self appointed protector of the grizzly bears Timothy Treadwell, is just the kind of extreme personality that one would assume would appeal to Herzog. Defiant and despising of human society, Treadwell spent thirteen summers in Katmai National Park and Preserve in Alaska filming himself with the wild grizzly bears until he and his girlfriend were both killed and eaten by one of them. The film combines Treadwell’s footage with interviews with ecologists, friends, and various people associated with Treadwell as Herzog provides his own commentary. There seem to be as many people who condemn Treadwell’s actions and think he is a nut as there are those who support him and feel his death was something fitting of the way he lived that he would have been proud of.

What will initially attract many viewers to this film is a macabre fascination with the manner in which Treadwell and his girlfriend, Amy Huguenard, died and the fact that Treadwell’s video camera was running (with the lens cap on) leaving an audio recording of the attack and Treadwell’s death. Our society’s propensity for hearing, seeing, and knowing all the details no matter how private, personal, or tawdry they may be is ultimately disappointed. We hear the coroner discussing the tape, but only as it relates to what kind of people Treadwell and Amy were and what their last moments say about them rather than divulging ghastly details. Though, Herzog is filmed listening to the tape and his reaction is captured he respectfully opts not to exploit the recording, even advising the tape’s owner never to listen to it and to destroy it. Herzog also avoids showing gruesome photos of Treadwell’s death, opting instead to focus on his life. It is, perhaps, this decision that will divide many of the viewers, some who will be disappointed at not having their horror fetish satiated, and others who will have respect for Herzog’s decision not to use Treadwell’s death to sell his film. It is an admirable decision, the type that is too seldom made in American entertainment, most notably in reality TV.

Through Treadwell’s footage he certainly gives the appearance of a man with delusions with his ravings about his role as protector of the bears, his baby like talk with the bears as if they were his pets. Treadwell often speaks of the danger he is in, but it never seems as though he is really aware or that he feels he is in real danger. He gives the bears overly cute names like Rowdy, Sgt. Brown, and Mr. Chocolate and rambles on about himself and acceptance into the bear community.

Treadwell is easy to find annoying, but Herzog shows there was more to him than his mad, redundant rants. Though Herzog openly disagrees with Treadwell in some areas, believing him to have crossed an invisible border between the wildlife and humans, one senses Herzog’s respect and kinship with Treadwell for the all out fanatical manner in which he lived his life, risking himself to capture the lives of bears as never before. Though Treadwell’s personality is often off putting there is enough in his story and Herzog’s presentation of it to engross the viewer, but there are bound to be differing opinions on if Treadwell’s passion is inspiring or horribly misguided.

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Published:
11.24.09 / 1am
Category:
Documentary, DVD, Films