Grizzly Man

Timothy Treadwell obviously has some sort of disorder. Perhaps it is emotional, perhaps psychological; perhaps those are both the same things, but it could be physical/genetic too. The man at first seems like a fruity environmentalist-for-the-sake-of-being-a- environmentalist moron, later he seems like he may be partially retarded, and by the end he seems like Ahab, megalomaniacal, and set on his own destruction. Only in Werner Herzog’s Grizzly Man, Treadewell doesn’t hunt the infamous Moby Dick, but rather a white whale that lives inside his very mind, heart, soul, etc.

For those un-privy to the tale, it’s a documentary about this man who retreats to the wilderness of Alaska to live with, and as, a grizzly bear. Fifty percent of him thinks of himself as a bear, and the other half thinks of the bears as humans. His failure to realize the immense differences between bears and humans (duh!?) leads to his, and his girlfriends, untimely deaths. The movie has moments of intense beauty, exploring the most private and personal aspects of Treadwell’s life, including many instances when Treadwell himself mentions the possibility of him being eaten by a bear, instances when he’s quiet, and instances when he’s repeatedly flipping off the camera yelling “fuck” about fifteen times. There was hundreds of hours of footage Treadwell personally shot, but this documentary uses the perfect two hours of it to show us what he looks like inside, and I don't mean his scattered intestines.

The movie really is great, and Herzog does a nice job of showing us what we need to see to understand this man, and not showing us what we don’t. Perhaps too, as we start to see the fallacy and passion of Timothy Treadwell we understand ourselves a slight bit more. My sole complaint is the narration, which seems a bit of a slap in the face. It’s narrated by Herzog himself, but instead of letting us recognize for ourselves the films beauty, he blatantly and repeatedly points it out by telling us what’s beautiful. In example, at one point Herzog says “some of the most beautiful moments Treadwell captures are while he’s off frame” and then a gust of wind plays with the swaying weeds. Yes Werner, I agree that it is beautiful, metaphorical, etc., but don’t tell me you pompous asshole, you are not the only person in the world that recognizes beauty. This isn’t a film that most people are going to go see, most people are too busy watching romantic comedies or Darko Saints/Boondock Donnie, you need to realize that the types of people that watch your strange movies probably fancy themselves a tad more phisticated, if not so. Otherwise Werner, you were spot on, jolly good show.