Grizzly Man

Timothy Treadwell must have been a complex human being. Werner Herzog's documentary combines some of the footage that Treadwell shot over the 13 summers he spent living with grizzly bears in Alaska (before they ate him), with various interviews with people who knew him. Like many Herzog protagonists, Treadwell seemed to be a lonely man with an obsession for something that's a little bit ridiculous, in this case protecting the bears by living with them, but unlike the characters of Aguirre or Fitzcarraldo, Treadwell was real -- the self-appointed protector of nature. It's a fascinating film, not the least of which being Treadwell's footage, which at times, Herzog correctly points out, has some unusually poetic moments. What elevates this film, however, is Herzog's ongoing narration, which often finds itself contradicting and debating Treadwell's oft stated beliefs. Herzog avoids discussing what could amount to being the politics of the situations, and instead focuses on the aesthetics of Treadwell's "filmmaking" and their respective philosphies of life and nature. In his review, Michael Atkinson makes a perceptive observation: "Regarding the bears as deus ex machina within Treadwell's bizarre saga, Herzog asserts again one of modern moviedom's wisest, plainest humanistic sensibilities, sympathetic to man's never ending war with the planet but aware that the struggle will always draw ambiguous blood. Treadwell is simply another lost foot soldier, killed in the ongoing collision between human obsession and untamed reality. " A wonderful documentary.