Werner Herzog’s documentary entitled Grizzly Man starts with a beautiful scenic view of some grizzly bears in Alaska with a calm background music, then the music stops and the focus of the camera changes as Timothy Treadwell walks in to the shot from behind the camera. “Most of the time I am a kind warrior. Occasionally I am challenged. In that case, I must become a samurai” said Timothy Treadwell, of which is a foreshadowing of this documentary about him, his struggles of which lead to his death.
The form of this documentary is made up of footage that Timothy Treadwell shot himself while in Alaska living with the bears, self narration from Timothy Treadwell as he documented all of his encounters with the bears each summer with plans to create a nature show out of his adventures. Narration from Werner Herzog the director of the film, interviews with Timothy’s family and friends; as well as interviews with bear ecologists and natives of which think timothy crossed the line with the bears.
Treadwell lived among the grizzlies for 13 summers and grew to love them. Treadwell and his girlfriend, Amie Huguenard, shot nearly 100 hours of video footage during the last five of these thirteen years. They survived camping in the Alaskan tundra in the midst of heavy rain and some rather friendly red foxes, of which Treadwell kindly named, just as he did the grizzly bears.
Through out the film we learn that Treadwell was a normal East Coast, middle class kid, whom went to college on a diving scholarship, went on to acting and made his way out to Los Angeles. After a failed audition for the bartender part claimed by Woody Harrelson on the hit television series, Cheers. After this perceived failure, Treadwell began questioning his life amongst people and began living with the grizzly bears of Kodiak, Alaska. Treadwell admitted to wanting to be a bear himself and still slept with his favorite teddy bear at night while camping in the wilderness.
Treadwell formed a non-profit organization called Grizzly People and was even interviewed on the David Letterman show. Unfortunately, Treadwell’s campaign to defend the grizzlies from poachers and to challenge the lack of support from the National Park Service tragically ended when he–and his girlfriend–were attacked and killed by a grizzly.
The footage that was shot by Treadwell is extraordinarily beautiful, due to the vast wilderness setting that the Kodiak, Alaska presented him with. Though, I question the director’s, Werner Herzog’s, sense of morals in the meaning of the film. Throughout the films interviews and Werner Herzogs narration the viewer gets a sense of understanding that Treadwell did indeed cross the line with the bears; which leaves me to wonder if Werner Herzog undermining Treadwell’s wishes for use the footage that Treadwell shot, in making a film that undoubtedly makes Treadwell seem mentally unstable.
The context of this film has asks the viewer a general question: How far is too far? In the case of Werner Herzog I believe he disrespectfully used Timothy Treadwell’s footage to create a Sundance film festival winner. If Timothy Treadwell were to see this film I think that he would be disappointed, in the story told by Werner Herzog, by desecrating his memory as a crazy guy. This film would only further Treadwell’s hate for the human world.
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