Grizzly Man

This is a Werner Herzog documentary about a man named Timothy Treadwell.  Treadwell had decided to live amongst Grizzly bears during the summer.  He did this for 13 years in the wilderness of Alaska.  This film is really about Treadwell's mental well being and his end at the hand of the creature he loved so dearly.

As this is a documentary, no reason for me to review the acting but let me tell you Treadwell is one "interesting" fellow.  Treadwell says he spent all that time with the grizzly to "save them" but it's clear, they don't need his saving.  My own opinion is that this guy was a wack job and should have been in a mental institution not only for the way he acted with the bears, but his overall mental state.

Herzog really does a nice job of talking to the important players in Treadwell's life and those folks, while not very interesting themselves, have some odd things to say about Treadwell.  Herzog even let's you watch him as he listens to the last audio tape of Treadwell being killed by a grizzly bear.  Needless to say, that is disturbing.

This is a pretty weird film but if you're curious about this guy you can't go wrong checking it out.  Herzog does a very nice job of putting this film together.  I have to say though, if you're going to see a Herzog film see Rescue Dawn (or it's documentary Little Dieter Needs to Fly) or if you want to see a great documentary see The Fog of War.

Posted on January 6, 2011