Grizzly Man (2005)

X An excellent must-see
O Good video rental
O Mediocre
O Rent something else

Review by Jason Pyles / August 11, 2007

“Grizzly Man” is one of the great documentaries by one of the great filmmakers, Werner Herzog. If you are not familiar with Werner Herzog, then make that your first priority. Herzog is to filmmaking what Evel Knievel was to “stuntmanship.” Or, more accurately, Werner Herzog is the Evel Knievel of filmmaking.

In “Grizzly Man,” Herzog introduces us into the world of Timothy Treadwell, a man who chose to live in the Alaskan wilderness among grizzly bears for 13 summers. Unlike Herzog’s other documentaries, much of the footage was shot by Treadwell himself — of himself, dangerously close to the bears.

For 11 of the 13 summers, Treadwell lived alone with the wild animals, 24 hours a day, for months at a time. His last two summers, he dragged his reluctant girlfriend, Amie Huguenard, with him. It is no secret (in the film or otherwise) that the inevitable happened: Both people were eaten in 2003 by a grizzly bear. (Visual footage of the fatal attack does not exist, and we are spared from hearing the audio recording.)

Herzog selects phenomenal footage from more than 100 hours of Treadwell’s video diary. Also, the German director interviews friends and associates of Treadwell; they say surprising things.

As for the editing, this documentary was initially rated R for language. All of that has been removed from this version, of course, but at one time Treadwell says “frikin’,” and it sounds like something else. But I would warn sensitive viewers about the frank discussions of the grizzly (and grisly) attack. Although some of this has been edited, too, much of it remains. It is vivid, explicit and horrifying.

“Grizzly Man” is an absolute masterpiece whose credit partially belongs to Herzog, but even more so to Timothy Treadwell, the so-called Grizzly Man himself, who loved bears more than anything, including his own life.

Directed by Werner Herzog
Werner Herzog / Timothy Treadwell / Jewel Palovak
103 min. Documentary
(Original MPAA rating: R)
Edited version age recommendation: 15 and up

DVD release date: December 26, 2005
Copyright 2007.
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