Grizzly Man is a 2005 documentary film by German director Werner Herzog. It chronicles the life and death of bear enthusiast Timothy Treadwell. The film consists of Treadwell's own footage of his interactions with grizzly bears before he and his girlfriend were killed and partially eaten by a bear in 2003, and of interviews with people who knew or were involved with Treadwell. The footage he shot was later found, and the final film was co-produced by Discovery Docs, the Discovery Channel's theatrical documentary unit, and Lions Gate Entertainment. The film's soundtrack is by British singer songwriter and guitarist Richard Thompson.

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Background

Timothy Treadwell spent thirteen summers in Katmai National Park and Preserve, Alaska. Over time, he believed he was trusted by the bears, who would allow him to approach them, and sometimes even touch them. Treadwell was repeatedly warned by park officials that his interaction with the bears was unsafe to both him and to the bears. "At best he's misguided," Deb Liggett, superintendent at Katmai and Lake Clark national parks, told the Anchorage Daily News in 2001. "At worst, he's dangerous. If Timothy models unsafe behavior, that ultimately puts bears and other visitors at risk." Treadwell filmed his exploits, and used the films to raise public awareness of the problems faced by bears in North America. In 2003, at the end of his thirteenth visit, he and his girlfriend Amie Huguenard were attacked, killed, and partially eaten by a bear.

Synopsis

For Grizzly Man , Herzog used sequences extracted from over 100 hours of video footage shot by Treadwell during the last five years of his life, and conducted interviews with Treadwell's family and friends, as well as bear- and nature-experts. Herzog also narrates, and offers his own interpretations of the events. In his narration, he depicts Treadwell as a disturbed man who may have had a death wish toward the end of his life, but also refuses to condemn him for this.

The film refers to an audio recording of the fatal attack, captured by Treadwell's video camera, and although Herzog is shown listening to it on earphones clearly disturbed, it is not played in the film. In fact, Herzog advises the owner of the tape, Jewel Palovak, an ex-girlfriend and close working associate of Treadwell who held onto the tape but refused to ever listen to it, to destroy it immediately.

Exhibition

Grizzly Man premiered at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival. It was released in theaters on August 12, 2005, and was released on DVD in the United States on December 26, 2005. The Discovery Channel aired Grizzly Man on television on February 3, 2006; its 3-hour presentation of the film included a 30-minute companion special that delved deeper into Treadwell's relationship with the bears and addressed controversies surrounding the film. The DVD release of the film is missing an interview with Treadwell by David Letterman that was shown in the original theatrical release where Letterman jokes that Treadwell will eventually be eaten by a bear. However, the versions televised on the Discovery Channel and Animal Planet both retain this scene.

Critical reception

Upon its North American theatrical release, Grizzly Man received almost universal critical praise. As of September 26, 2008, the film has a score of 93% on Rotten Tomatoes, with a 100% rating among the 'Cream of the Crop.' ^[1]

David Denby of The New Yorker said:

"Narrating in his extraordinary German-accented English, Herzog is fair-minded and properly respectful of Treadwell’s manic self-invention. He even praises Treadwell as a good filmmaker: as Treadwell stands talking in the foreground of the frame, the bears play behind him or scoop up salmon in sparkling water; in other shots, a couple of foxes leap across the grass in the middle of a Treadwell monologue. The footage is full of stunning incidental beauties." ^[2]

Prolific web reviewer James Berardinelli called the film one of the ten best of 2005, and wrote:

"Grizzly Man addresses some esoteric themes. Is there a line between man and nature? Did Treadwell see himself as more bear than man? Were the liberties he took by initiating such close contact with the bears 'disrespectful' (as one Native American puts it) to the natural boundaries between a predator and its potential prey? Certainly, Treadwell found a clarity in the wilderness with his beloved bears that he could not achieve in human society. And he died the way he wanted to (or, as one person states, 'he got what he deserved'); unfortunately, he took someone else with him. Grizzly Man is compelling material from start to finish." ^[3]

Film critic Roger Ebert, a longtime supporter of Werner Herzog's work, awarded the film four stars.

"'I will protect these bears with my last breath', Treadwell says. After he and Amie become the first and only people to be killed by bears in the park, the bear that is guilty is shot dead. His watch, still ticking, is found on his severed arm. I have a certain admiration for his courage, recklessness, idealism, whatever you want to call it, but here is a man who managed to get himself and his girlfriend eaten, and you know what? He deserves Werner Herzog." ^[4]

Web reviewer Ross Miller called the film,

"an engaging, honest, and powerful example of documentary cinema that doesn’t speak for the footage but rather allows the footage to speak for itself."

In some circles, Grizzly Man has become somewhat of a "Cult Classic".

Other criticism

Charlie Russell, who has studied bears for 42 years, lived with them and raised them for a decade in Kamchatka, and corresponded with Timothy Treadwell, wrote of Herzog:

"Herzog is a skillful filmmaker so a large percentage of those who watch the movie Grizzly Man , overlook Timothy's amazing way with animals even though to me this stands out very strongly. The fact that Timothy spent an incredible 35,000 hours, spanning 13 years, living with the bears in Katmai National Park, without any previous mishap, escapes people completely. Even with his city-kid background, I found myself mesmerized by what he could do with animals. Most people now see him only the way Herzog skillfully wanted his audience to see him; as an idiot who continually "crossed nature's line," what ever that means. Perhaps, in his mind, nature’s line is something behind which bears and other nasty things reside who will inevitably kill you if you go there without a gun. He takes everything Timothy stood for and turned it 180°, the result which he then weaves into his own unsophisticated agenda." ^[5]

Awards

• Nominated for the Gotham Award for Best Documentary
• Won the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Documentary/ Non-Fiction Film
• Won the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Non-Fiction Film
• Won the San Francisco Film Critics Circle Award for Best Documentary
• Won the Alfred P. Sloan Prize and was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival
• Won the Toronto Film Critics Association Award for Best Documentary
• Won the Anugerah Seri Angkasa 2008 Angkasapuri.

Box office

Grizzly Man opened on August 12, 2005 in 29 theatres in North America. It grossed US$269,131 ($9,280 per screen) in its opening weekend. At its widest point, it played at 105 theatres, and made US$3,178,403 during its run.

References

1. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/grizzly_man/?critic=creamcrop
2. Loners
3. Grizzly Man
4. Grizzly Man
5. Russell, Charlie. Letters from Charlie. ''cloudline.org''. February 21, 2006. Accessed on: 13-06-2008.