Tonight at 8 p.m. EST/7 p.m. CST, the Discovery Channel will be airing Werner Herzog's documentary Grizzly Man, which follows Timothy Treadwell as he travels to Alaska's wildnerness every summer to live among the grizzly bears which inhabit the area.
This is a documentary that shook me to the core and it's hard for me to say why. That is to say, it's not one that gives you pause to re-examine your own life per se, at least that didn't happen with me. But I was so wrapped in the unfolding story and it's tragic yet somehow inevitable conclusion. It's somewhat jarring to watch someone's slow descent into madness.
Primarily using footage Treadwell shot himself during his time in Alaska, it starts innocently enough with the introduction of Treadwell and his interaction with the wildlife in the Alaskan refuge. Masterfully edited, it slowly becomes obvious that Treadwell is increasingly unstable and unable to cope with the fundamental nature of nature (ie, animals are part of a food chain), yet he is also unable to cope with living in the real world. So engrossing is the footage Treadwell shot of himself as you slowly begin to realize that being isolated so long has turned the camera into his friend. It's almost certain that Treadwell was going to use his footage to make his own documentary and yet he captures so many funny, disturbing and angry moments that surely would have never been used for any film.
Unthinkably, this film is not nominated for an Academy award for documentary film and that's quite a shame. This was one of the best documentaries I've ever seen and the best of the year for certain. I liked March of the Penguins, I liked Murderball too, but this one is simply a cut above. I suppose not being nominated is why it can be aired on the Discovery Channel, though I'm sure it will be edited and censored heavily since Treadwell rather frequently delves into foul language territory. Watch it tonight and if you enjoy it, rent the DVD to see it in all its unedited glory. This is definitely one to watch.
Article comments
1 - Bob Winski
What a big JERK after watching the documentry.Did he really expect the bears to be friendly towards him.The stupid coments like how much i love you to the bears .Like they really could understand that.He was in there teritory
2 - Charles Caraway
I have wacthed Timothy's career how he lived anomg the Grizzly. I have stuided the Grizzly ,and read just about everything written about this creature. After saying this, I think Timothy was a little crazy.
He was naive to think he clould get this formable creature's trust. I think he really thought he could, but forgot the fact that this animal has been around for a whole lot longer than man. This animal is "Wild" and in his own enviorment. This was a gene that no man or anything else could undue.
Sooner or later he would make a mistake and the Grizzly just thought of him as another meal. I know he understood this, but after spending so many years in the wild with them, he forgot about the wild gene, and made a fatal judgement,and it cost him his life,and his girlfriend's life.
Afetr watching Grizzly Man, it was obvious that he was loosing his sanity,and actually beginning to think he was a bear himself. He talked about how he could not cope with society back in the real world. So he slowly slipped into a world of the Grizzly Bear.
I think he was a geat ambassador trying to save the Girzzly. He did love this animal. But he was obsessed with ideah he could become one, and it cost him his life. Let this be a lesson to anyone who thinks he can live among the Grizzly, and not lose his life. Such a sad tragedy to see a smart man lose his life, to such a unrealistic ideah.
3 - Kathryn
Herzog is an interesting character. I don’t think I would have watched Grizzly Man if Herzog weren’t involved. I have recently become quite a fan of his. Although, I felt as though the interviews with Treadwell’s friends and family were very staged and even comical. I couldn’t get away from the mocumentary feeling that was reminiscent of “Incident at Lochness”. And, although Treadwell did have some beautiful film footage, when he could keep himself out of the shot, I don’t think it was due to his “talent” any more than sheer luck and being in the right place. I couldn’t quite tell, all through the film, if Herzog thought Treadwell was a genius or a nut case. It wasn’t until the very end that I realized that as a film director, Herzog must have appreciated the beauty of Treadwell’s footage, but found that the man himself was unstable and a fraud.
4 - Scott
Some of the interviews did seem hammed up a bit...or something...but, it's most likely due to the fact that they most likely did multiple takes so they had a chance to "rehearse" what they would say...and at least one of his friends was an "actor" and was probably doing his best "acting" job while giving the interview. I don't think Herzog coached them to say anything specific one way or another, in other words. I don't think they were fake.
5 - Nidhogg
It was a shame this wasn't up for the documentary award. For what it's worth, I enjoyed Grizzly Man much more than March of the Penguins, though March of the Penguins was very good.
6 - ss
I realise Discovery just meant to sell advertising, but after getting that cruise line commercial drilled into my head every ten minutes for three hours, (wow! she smiled!) Treadwell's quoxiotic vision came off a lot better than it did in the theater.
Now that I got that out of my system...
Discovery also released Deep Blue(?), that movie about the couple who go on a reef dive and get left at sea by the dive boat- that one was about as close to Jack London's short story 'To Build a Fire' as I've ever seen in a movie. To follow that up with this great documentary, and by Herzog no less! Discovery is turning into one to watch for theatrical movies, just do yourself a favor and spend the 9 bucks, don't wait for it to air on the Discovery channel.
7 - Scott
Yeah, I definitely recommend seeing it on DVD. For one thing, you don't have commercials every 5 minutes. It did get pretty annoying that there were so many commercials...
8 - michele f
I found this documentary truly amazing in every aspect. it showed that he was in love with this animal as well as all wildlife. he was genuine in thinking(some may say naive) that he could really save and be saved from the bears. It did show at the end that the were bears poached that hadn't been while timothy was living there. how do you explain that? is alaska hiding those kind of horrendous stories... whether or not timothy and amie were in the right, he did love these animals and it came through in this documentary and no one deserves to be eaten alive no matter what some morbid people are saying!
9 - Jim
I believe Treadwell might have enjoyed more seasons with the bears had he not brought Amie with him. Treadwell's fearlessness when approached by bears surely saved him from provoking a defensive attack many times. If you scream and run when a bear approaches, it will be startled and threatened and may well attack. Amie did not exhibit this same fearlessness, as shown when she crouched down when their eventual killer, "Ollie", approached their camp just a short time before their death. The other factor no one has mentioned is jealousy. If he was around these bears year after year, someone new in his camp took away the attention the bears might have been given without Amie around. We will just never know the truth, as it could have just been a ill-timed meeting in the Grizzly Maze, or a premeditated feeding for a bear getting ready for hibernation.
10 - Bob Winski
They should have called it IDIOT MAN.When you start to mess around with nature that is what can happen.Leave the bears alone.Bob W
11 - Tanya
I knew the story line of what happened to Timothy. I expected to see a powerfull movie about the man who dedicated his life to grizzly bear protection and study. After watching it I felt very dissapointed and angry to be honest. I felt that all Timothy's hard work was undermineded. He left 100 hours of powerfull footage but Werner Herzog took only horrible moments of man's weakest moments and put it in the film alongside his personal opinion about what nature is really all about. He pictured Timothy as uncontrolled freak who hoped to become famous with showing his footage.Mr. Herzog is that all you got from 100 hours of nature film? I am really sad that Werner Herzog got his hand on Timothy's work. What could have been wonderfull movie about grizzly bear turned out to be a horrible portrayal of a passionate naturalist Timothy Tradewell.
12 - teresa yañez
Mi ex-marido, estudiando los monos araña en la selva mexicana durante 3 años, experimentó por algunos meses exactamente lo mismo que Timothy. Por lo que pienso que cualquiera que se someta a tanto tiempo de soledad en la naturaleza, llega al mismo estado de desprecio por la sociedad, de pasión por la vida salvaje y de tal empatía con su "nahual" que quieren convertirse en uno de ellos... Nadie que no tenga la pasión para estar meses y meses aislado, estudiando a los animales, lo puede comprender.