Grizzly Man
Wow this film looks amazing…
GRIZZLY MAN is a docudrama that centers on amateur grizzly bear expert Timothy Treadwell who journeyed to Alaska to study and live with the bears for 13 summers. Acclaimed director Werner Herzog explores the life and death of Timothy Treadwell who lived unarmed among the bears, and filmed his adventures in the wild during his final five seasons. In October 2003, Treadwell’s remains, along with those of his girlfriend, Amie Huguenard, were discovered near their campsite in Alaska’s Katmai National Park and Reserve. They had been mauled and devoured by a grizzly.
Check out the unbelievable trailer and here’s the official website.
Thanks to Shawn for telling me about it.
CHAD
steve called me yesterday to tell me about this crazy movie he just saw, which turns out to be this one. he says it’s just rediculous (in a good way) and that you don’t know how to respond except to laugh, even when it turns serious.
alice p/k/a peonymama
I really love Werner’s films. I always have. I waited to see this one on DVD because I become truly extra pathetic when it comes to animal films. I thought this was well done, and it really came at you from various perspectives. There were those who thought Timothy got what he deserved, that he was an ecological hero, and that he was truly just lost in society and felt more at home with bears in the wilderness than he did with other human beings.
I think you should definitely see it yourself, and check it out. Everyone should draw their own conclusions. Mine was that Timothy was a very sad person, and although he wanted to protect these animals that he loved, he didn’t really respect them enough. There’s some truth in the “acceptance” he got from the bears he knew. He was NOT killed by any of those. It was an old, hungry outsider. I heard that on an interview with Werner before I saw the film, so I don’t think it should be a surprise.
My husband and I were pretty blown away with the film. I highly recommend it.
Have you seen The Wild Parrots Of Telegraph Hill?
fly*
Theres just way too much irony in it all…the crusade, the end, the surname….
Hans
Vanity Fair published, about a year ago, a lengthy article about this guy and his girlfriend, and their horrible death. This guy was much too human. Part crusader, part self-promoter.And sadly, he was responsible for his girlfriend’s death.
olivia
Shawn told me he devoted his life to promote awareness about their loss of habitat due to human interference.
I just read this fantastic review on AMAZON by Miles D Moore which makes me want to watch it even more:
The amazing thing about Timothy Treadwell was that he survived 13 summers in the Alaska wilderness, living among gigantic, ferocious grizzly bears, until one of them finally ate him. Treadwell was a combination environmental activist, societal rebel, filmmaker, nutcase and holy fool. In other words, he was not unlike Werner Herzog, director of “Grizzly Man,” the brilliant new documentary about Treadwell’s life and horrible death. Herzog is much more self-aware than Treadwell ever was, and has much more of a sense of reality and irony. But as a filmmaker drawn to impossible projects (“Fitzcarraldo,” “Aguirre, the Wrath of God”), he feels a definite kinship to Treadwell, even as he’s appalled by Treadwell’s egregious lapses of judgment. Treadwell shot more than 100 hours of film of himself and his beloved grizzlies, and Herzog culls the best of that film for “Grizzly Man.” In his own film footage, Treadwell showed himself consistently to be an arrested adolescent, conflating the terrifying behemoths he lived among with his collection of teddy bears. (He speaks constantly of the mortal danger of living among grizzlies, but never quite seems to believe his own words.) Yet he also captured some of the most amazing nature scenes ever recorded, and Herzog respects him for that. (In his narration, Herzog also expresses great tenderness toward Amie Huguenard, the woman who loved Treadwell, followed him to the wilderness despite her fear of bears, and shared his horrible fate.) Whereas Treadwell sought order in nature, and believed the grizzlies loved him as much as he loved them, Herzog sees nothing in Treadwell’s story except the workings of a chaotic universe sending one more dreamer to his doom. But because Treadwell’s dreams were so outsized, Herzog sees him as a brother. So, thanks to Herzog, do we.
lola
Don’t you think it’s ironic that someone so taken with grizzlies (and lived with them) ends up getting killed by one of the creatures?
Having seen one in nature, I know these magnificent creatures are unpredictable. I could never imagine living in such close proximity to them for any reason. After all, we have our own homes so why do we have to move into THEIR neighbourhood?
nathan
Hmmm… I think Shawn was the one who mentioned that…