Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
Grizzly, 7 Mar 2006
Werner Herzog is noted for making films that include 'animals doing unusual things' and 'long, extended landscape shots' (IMDB). Grizzly Man fulfills both criteria, but more unusual than the behaviour of the bears that feature in this brilliant documentary, is that of film's protagonist - Timothy Treadwell - an authentic American outsider who spent 13 long summers in a remote Alaskan wilderness documenting these wild creatures. It's an examination of this obsessive, eccentric and ultimately deluded man, who is misguided into the belief that he is able to 'make friends' with some of nature's most fearsome predators.
What makes this film especially interesting is the way Werner Herzog pieces it together as a kind of poem to man's relationship with nature, intercutting Treadwell's own - often inspirational - wildlife footage, his on-camera soliluquies, and interviews with family, friends and contemporaries. What catches the eye the most is the footage of Treadwell himself, ranging from his amusing wildlife 'presentations' to egomaniacal rants against the park authorities, poachers and other visitors to his remote hideaway.
What becomes apparent, and is expertly pieced together by Herzog, is that while Treadwell is selflessly committed to what he sees as the preservation of the bears, he may well be doing them as much harm as good, and he has faslely seen in them a mutual affinity that ultimately costs him and his girlfriend their lives. Is Treadwell's obsession with the bears embelmatic of his more problematic relationship with human society? What is it that he is escaping from? As Herzog himself points out in monologue, there are moments in Treadwell's films that are 'pure cinema'. What makes this film great is that he allows these moments to breath, while building up a sensitive but unromanticised portrait of a troubled soul. Along with 'Etre et Avoir' and 'Capturing the Friedmans' - one of the greats in the current renaissance of the documentary film.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
Tread lightly, 12 Feb 2007
This is not so much of a wildlife film as an unfolding human drama about a sad, disillusioned man unable to deal with the blandness of his own existence. Ironically his alternative lifestyle amongst the wild bears of Alaska was also untenable, but one gets the feeling that the real world would have killed him faster than the wilderness eventually did.
Herzog does wonders with Treadwell's footage, which from a wildlife point of view is all but ruined by his own vanity and constant misguided rants. Despite his supposed intimacy with the animals there is seldom any worthwhile filming of these incredible creatures and certainly no new ground broken.
The characters we meet in the film leave you feeling that the whole thing is just about to descend into a complete spoof and you half expect to see Eugene Levy or Christopher Guest introduced as a pilot or doctor.
The whole bizarreness of the film though is ultimately overshadowed by the sadness not so much of Treadwell's demise, but certainly of his inner turmoil and of the tragic and unnecessary death of his young companion.
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
Insightful, Sad and Poignant Documentary, 25 Mar 2007
Werner Herzog's 2005 documentary "Grizzly Man" is a documentary that effortlessly captures the attention of the viewer. This is a documentary that is insightful, sad and poignant throughout. Intentionally insightful, sad and poignant; "Grizzly Man" is also a documentary that -- either intentionally or unintentionally -- manages to be funny at times. For a documentary about a man and his girlfriend being killed brutally by a wild bear, its refreshing that this isn't just another of those depressing pieces of film constantly throughout.
"Grizzly Man" focuses on a man named Timothy Treadwell. For thirteen consecutive summers he camped out in Katmai in the Alaskan Peninsula so that he could live amongst bears. That was until one of the wild bears in question brutally killed and ate Timothy along with his girlfriend Amie Huguenard. Using footage that Timothy recorded during the final five years of his visits to the grizzly bear habitat, "Grizzly Man" paints an emotional, awe-inspiring portrait of the troubled wildlife enthusiast.
Though it focuses primarily on the brutal death of the man in question (and that of the aforementioned girlfriend) "Grizzly Man" refrains from being just another exploitative documentary. Herzog purposefully doesn't allow the final audio recording that captured Timothy's horrific demise (the camera lens itself was still covered by its cap) and compassionately advises the owner that she never listen to it and that she should destroy it.
And while the compassionate, human styling of Herzog's documentary serves as one of its greatest strengths it is he himself that drags it down slightly. As footage filmes by Treadwell plays out on screen Herzog too often steps in and voices his own opinions on whats happening with Treadwell at certain moments in the given footage. A scene where the emotionally troubled Treadwell, a man growing more naive and distanced from human kind, comes across a half eaten baby fox should be an emotional, devastating scene. However, Herzog's interruption in which he states beliefs to the contrary to those Treadwell is expressing in the footage takes away from the harsh scene -- even if Herzog is trying to point out the harshness of it all. As the film goes along Herzog begins to narrate far too much, and it takes away from what otherwise could have been a brilliant documentary.
Taken from over one hundred hours of footage that Treadwell had recorded himself, "Grizzly Man" gains more strength from the subject's own recordings than through Herzog's attempts at being insightful with the interviews with those that knew Treadwell. Had more of the film Treadwell himself filmed replaced Herzog's interviews this would have certainly been better. The emotion and detachment expressed in his own footage depicts accurately enough how deeply troubled and confused the tragic man was.
"Grizzly Man" is an insightful, sad and poignant documentary that manages to be funny and charming throughout as well. This is a harrowing and occasionally hilarious film and is something I can easily reccomend. Almost brilliant.
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