Film Review of Grizzly Man
Year: 2005 Reviewer: Chris Docker
I am not a great watcher of documentaries. Filmmakers seem to know this, and the documentaries they produce tend to be sensational, one-sided, fulfilling a personal agenda that I must then agree or disagree with or frankly, just downright boring. Which is why Grizzly Man, an astonishing film about the astonishingly strange Timothy Treadwell (who had a suicidal devotion to grizzly bears), startled me with its integrity and difficult-to-define attraction.
Treadwell was an amateur grizzly bear expert and wildlife preservationist. Having failed as an actor and worked in a restaurant he discovered his calling. Treadwell kept video diaries of his work which show not only remarkable footage of these little-observed creatures, but also his wayward character, obsessively trying to get the best presentations. Treadwell has an air of New Age madness about him, is tireless in his proselytising for the cause of grizzlies when not encamped with them, and yet his craziness is tempered with sincerity. When the bears are threatened by a shortage of rain (and consequent lack of salmon), he first attempts to build a channel for the water. When this doesn't work, he tries an appeal to whatever gods might or might not exist, including Jehovah, Allah, Buddha and the 'Hindu floaty thing'. Humorously, and to the great relief no doubt of the bears, these earnest supplications are, strangely enough, followed by rain.
Every so often, director and narrator Werner Herzog brings us down to earth with unaffected commentary. Treadwell devoted his life to making friends with bears and believed he had accomplished his mission. Herzog, on the other hand, disagrees, saying that of all Treadwell's footage that he has studied, or of the many reels of grizzly bear behaviour he has watched, not once has he seen anything that could have been regarded as a warm attitude from grizzlies to humans - nothing other than a bored disinterest with a source of last resort food. His observation is piercing and poignant in its accuracy.
It would have been easy to sensationalise this story (Treadwell was eventually eaten by grizzlies), make fun of a man whose rationality seems frequently to be in question, or pit various factions against each other. Herzog did none of these. He co-produced the movie with someone who was close to Treadwell, expressing a sensitivity in spite of being calmly critical of the man, and manages to keep us entranced from one scene to the next without playing trump cards such as the screams of Treadwell recorded on his last tape.
Rating: 8/10
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