Grizzly Man Review (Sunday Business Post)

Grizzly Man
Documentary – Dir Werner Herzog
Review: Jonathan McCrea

Through his work as self-proclaimed guardian of grizzly bears, Timothy Treadwell had earned himself a reputation as something of an oddity. For thirteen years, he made an annual trip to spend the summer months alone with the brown bears of Alaska, the last five of which he filmed. On his final trip in 2003 however, he overstayed his welcome and was promptly devoured by his hosts.
In this intriguing documentary, director Werner Herzog (Nosferatu, Fitzcarraldo) pieces together scenes from Treadwell’s extensive footage in the wild. What unfolds, however, is something quite different from a nature programme.
Whether his child-like manner was an affectation or not is for the viewer to decide, but people in touch with the day-to-day world don’t behave like Timothy. Almost a parody of the typical environmentalist, his pieces to camera in ‘presenter-mode’ are curiously engrossing as he tells us of his ‘destiny to protect the bears’. His bears are ‘cute’; he loves them like his teddy. As he caresses fresh faeces, he tells us he adores it because pointing at a female adult grizzly, it ‘came from inside of her’. He is overwrought at the death of a bee. Barney the Dinosaur seems menacing by comparison.
The real story, however, is told via would-be outtakes from the bear enthusiast’s tapes. A recovering alcoholic and failed actor, Treadwell had tried to find refuge from the modern world. But there is no doubt that Treadwell’s time alone with the animals had affected him. As time progresses, we witness signs of extremism in thought and action as he vents his frustrations at mankind to his camera. Rationality is abandoned for the cause of the bears.
It is here, in investigating this psychological descent, that Herzog is restrained. We learn Treadwell had a violent past, but we never find out how far he was willing to push his ‘enemies’ for his cause. What obstacles did put in the way of poachers, how did his relationship with the authorities deteriorate? We know only that he would die for his convictions.
Herzog clearly holds an affection for Treadwell, and as a result the overall tone of the documentary is more poignant than objective. Little is made of the grizzly man’s faults for example, the film often lending to the sentimental. However, in this sad, rare story it’s an easy flaw to forgive.