Grizzly Man

Upon coming out of Grizzly Man, with my friend, I couldn't help noticing my own face in the reflection of the lobby mirrors... my face was completely blank. I looked over at my friend, and noticed she was merely staring down at her shoes and scratching her nose. Exiting out onto the street, joining the rest of the crowd as we all search for our cars, I couldn't help but believe I was still staring into the lobby mirrors... nearly every head was shaking, and every expression blank.

I now believe I will never know how I feel about Timothy Treadwell. A boy who accidentally grew into a man.

Grizzly Man immediately opens with the facts surrounding Timothy Treadwell and his girlfriend Amie Huguenard's death. These facts will stay inside you as you grow acquainted with Timothy and the animals surrounding his demise. Sadly, Amie Huguenard remains a faceless mystery.

Werner Herzog's soul remains intact, as he gently disassembles the matter of Timothy Treadwell's. Failed actor? Inveterate liar? Misguided Mercenary? Was Timothy Treadwell merely playing out the part of some great Discovery Channel episode in his head? We watch and listen as a lonely Timothy walks and talks into his only companion, a MiniDV camera, about his female problems, drug problems, memories and most importantly his love of animals.

Bears and Foxes in particular. There is one thing you could never doubt about this man, and that is of his love for Bears. "I love you, I love you..." We constantly hear him saying to the Bear's and Foxes that had become his "friends" over the years. And through Herzog's direction it is impossible to miss the beauty in this.

Timothy Treadwell's photography in this film is absolutely extraordinary. And Mr. Herzog did an extraordinary job putting it all together. In my opinion, this is his best film since Little Dieter Needs To Fly. (Un) fortunately, I cannot stop thinking about it. I cannot stop wondering who this man was... He wrapped himself in bandana's, claimed to be a "Peaceful Warrior", there to protect the Bears. But from what? The arguments were made that acquainting himself with them, he was doing much more harm then good. Why should they get to know a human? How could this help them in the future? And we know how it ended for him...

How can you just sit there and watch one mans whole life be wrapped up in a two hour film? And then declare his work meaningless? You can't. Was he just a suicidal man, playing one big act? Was he truly some feral warrior, bringing awareness and the importance of Bear protection and safety to light? Was he a directionless maniac who ultimately got an innocent girl killed?

The duality of Timothy Treadwell is merely one more example of the duality of mankind. And the mirror in which I had been looking into had, in fact, been the movie screen itself. Unfortunately, it appears as though he believed the Bears surrounding him shared this depth. And who am I to tell you they don't?

I have so far resisted peer pressure to watch more than the first episodes of Tiger King, but I can still say with confidence that Grizzly Man is vastly superior.

It's truly incredible the amount of empathy Herzog is able to generate for such a misguided, kooky person. It's all the more impressive to see the contrast between Timothy Treadwell's sentimentalized view of nature with Herzog's (and my, for that matter) view that nature is indifferent and chaotic. To mix these two contrasting philosophies with what are, in some sense, two different films--Treadwell's footage and Herzog's narration and interviews--make for something truly moving and insightful.

Warner Herzog is a brilliant and masterful director. The way he put together the story of Tim Treadwell and his life with grizzly's defies the constructs of formulaic "nature" doc's. It goes deep, as we are allowed to dive into the mind and psyche's of both Treadwell and Herzog as Treadwell's fated story is revealed to us through bits of the 100 hours of footage Treadwell left behind, new interviews, insights, and a brilliant and personal narrative done by Herzog himself.

As Herzog gets to know Treadwell through his footage and loved ones left behind, he is touched, changed, and allows the audience to revel in his new found awe, frustrations, and respect for Treadwell's life.

The film documents the life of "the Girzzly Man" timothy Treadwell through his leftover footage from thirteen summers he lived with, and immersed himself into the grizzly habitat and culture. He felt he was a grizzly, and thus broke boundaries that have been respected among the Alaskan natives concerning these brown beasts. He created what he felt to be a bond, a brotherhood with these majestic animals. But was this conquest purely for scientific reasoning or was he truly terrified of the "human world." That is where Herzog directs this film.

The fascinating thing about Herzog's interviews is what he catches after his participants are done answering his questions, and we see these souls search and ponder for answers to questions they may never know the answer too.

"Grizzly Man" won the Alfred P. Sloan award at this years Sundance film festival, which goes to the film felt to tie in science and discovery into normal narrative paradigm. This film deserved it's praise and was thusly purchased for theatrical release by Lions Gate before it's release on television through Discovery films.

When you get the chance, don't just run to your local theater or television to view this masterpiece, leap and sprint. This is an important and beautiful piece, one that will touch and move all those who allow it to. This is the best of the fest in my opinion, and maybe even of the year, and it is only January.

This film proves what little we already know about wildlife: 99% of the time, it will leave you alone as long as you don't harass it, but the 1% is a differential that ends with you screaming and some guy finding your arm later.

It also proves that we know even less about human nature than we do about bears, as Tim Treadwell is a mystery even to his own species.

It's obvious that he has some kind of disorder or drug-related brain damage, what with his extreme lability of mood, delusions of identity, neurotic and repetitive speech patterns, and general paranoia about the activities of his fellow humans. He knows a lot of interesting people, from his geeky friends who state the mundane as though it is profound ("I don't think he had a death wish at all." "I don't think anyone really deserves to be eaten alive by a bear."), to the Friend/Actor who is not even believable when portraying himself, to his very ordinary parents who are just as confused by him as we are.

In this film, we learn that Treadwell switches addictions from alcohol to bears, and descends into functional madness while attempting to integrate himself into their "secret, inner world." He is paradoxical throughout, both disliking humans and yearning for a love relationship, being fully aware of the dangers that the bears pose, but doing nothing to protect himself from them. (Well, he is fatalistic in his devotion to them, but seems to think that they will not harm him as long as he behaves properly around them. That an older, aggressive bear could become hunger-crazed enough to attack him indiscriminately seems beyond his scope.) At times he shows a thorough understanding of animal behavior and the natural world, at other times a grand ignorance of the reality of life in the wilderness. He seems forever stymied trying to enforce human concepts like justice and righteousness upon the jungle. His sentimentality with the bears and perceived relationships there show in stark relief when the animals display constant indifference or even aggression, and when it is clear that some near-altercation with them has occurred off-camera.

In the end, he is really no more successful with bears than he is with people, understanding the basic rules but never seeing the whole picture in clarity enough to know how to avoid crashing and burning.

Perhaps most indicative of his dysfunction is how he responds to the fond relationship he develops with the foxes, who actively play with him and seek his company and interaction. While he loves them, they are but a footnote on his path to destruction; he prefers the ambiguous and imagined affection from the dangerous bears, to the foxes' genuine displays of it.

"Grizzly Man" is not about a man at all; it is a sad, true story about a wayward being without a species.

On this journey, the audience meets a lot of bears that look alike but who we know were distinct to Treadwell, a creepy coroner who is probably not acting, and a slew of observers who all have their own biased and often badly distorted views of "what really happened." In the creamy middle is the quirky pilot who knew Treadwell best, and the director himself, the voice of reason in this well-crafted work.

The moral: Van Halen was right. "It's business as usual in the woods." Animals make sense; it's people that don't.

For 13 summers, animal activist Timothy Treadwell traveled to Alaska to live among and "protect" his most cherished of creatures, the Grizzly bear. During the last 5 of those seasons, he brought video equipment to capture his interactions with the native wildlife. Unfortunately for him and his girlfriend, the number 13 would prove most unlucky as both were eaten by, unsurprisingly- A Grizzly.

Enter filmmaker legend Werner Herzog. With over 100 hours of footage and an immense belief, he gives us "Grizzly Man", a superb documentary far more involved with frail human conditions than anything about nature.

With Treadwell as the main attraction, it couldn't have been any other way. It is truly mind-boggling to witness all the mental/emotional problems colliding and bubbling so, so close to the surface- Exaggerated ego, self-loathing, (possibly) repressed homosexuality, willful ignorance, dangerous hypocrisy, and some form of bi-polar disorder are just some of them.

Here are some pretty good examples:

Throughout the film, Treadwell boasts of unsurpassed expertise and intimacy when dealing with bears, but as it happens, he has NO form of training dealing with wildlife whatsoever. He went from being a wannabe actor with alcohol and drug issues to super-activist almost overnight and with too few questions.

Treadwell repeatedly speaks of his contempt for mankind, yet he somehow manages to endow the bears around him with very human characteristics. Full of delusion, he sees love in cold eyes and takes "Back off dude" gestures as welcoming advances.

20 takes and multiple diatribes, all while mugging for the camera, seriously clouds Treadwell's integrity in several instances. And finally............

If you're going to brag about being the bears "only protector", you really shouldn't do it when you and the animals always reside on a government sponsored preserve. Furthermore, when tourists throw rocks at your "friends" and you hide in the bushes and do nothing about it because you can't "blow your cover", it's time to question your protective abilities.

Believe me, there is MUCH more, but hopefully these will be just enough to grab your interest.

Now as far as Herzog's work goes, it's quite good. He intersperses footage with interviews evenly and keeps things flowing nicely. Admittedly, a large portion of the interviews feel contrived/staged and some footage seems redundant, but on the overall, this a well put together and absorbing package.

In the end, "Grizzly Man" is an excellent viewing experience about a complicated, troubled man-child and his severely misguided endeavors.

(Strangely enough, Treadwell had a far more genuine bond with the foxes of the preserve; they really seemed to care for him and enjoy his company. Maybe if he had focused on them, he'd still be with us.)