Review of Grizzly Man (2005) by Tommi A — 25 Aug 2008

One of the best documentaries I've had the privilege to see. It starts out as just Werner Herzog explaining who this guy was and what he was all about, but it turns into something much bigger and much deeper. It transforms into a character study into the mind of someone so unique. Yes, probably crazy, but definitely unique.

I think Herzog was intrigued as much as anyone else who loved this film, at Treadwell's mentality. He lived and died for these bears, but that was what he wanted. He was so passionate about what he did, that even though he knew it would probably kill him, he kept on doing it just because he knew that's where he belonged. People say he got what he deserved, but he knew that was probably going to happen all along. That wasn't the point. The whole point of his trips out to bear country was to spend his life learning about bears, documenting their behavior, protecting them from people who tried to kill them. He felt like he had to protect them because no one else would.

I would love to be as intensely passionate about something as Timothy Treadwell was about the bears. I think Herzog wanted to as well, but as the film progresses, he distances himself more and more from Treadwell's mentality. In the beginning, he tries to find some understanding in it in his fascination of Treadwell, but by the end he has fully realized that Treadwell believed in a world that Herzog does not believe in. There's a wonderful moment near the end of the film where Herzog fully cuts himself off from Treadwell, "There is no secret world of the bears." He wanted to believe that there was something to Treadwell's passion for himself, but he realizes that Treadwell lived in an entirely different world, one that could not exist for Herzog.

It's not so much a nature film as it is a fascinating look into the mind of a crazy passionate human being.