Grizzly Man (2005)

 
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PostPosted: Thu Sep 15, 2011 5:06 pm    Post subject: Grizzly Man (2005) Reply with quote

This Werner Herzog movie was probably controversial. It sticks to the facts and presents them more or less objectively, but the premise that Timothy Treadwell is living by is the controversial part.

This man loved bears so much and was so committed to saving them that he went to live among them every summer on Kodiak Island in Alaska for 13 years. He knew he was living dangerously. By his own admission he was courting death. He seems almost to have been recklessly suicidal.

And he was killed and eaten by a bear in 2003. So was his companion/girl friend.

The film, consisting mostly of footage Treadwell had filmed, was made after his death. We are spared the audiotape that ran during the killing of Treadwell and Amie (the girl).

We’re not spared much else. We see dismembered body parts, bears defecating while fighting, and so forth. But the film is so well made that these elements fit seamlessly into the narrative without real shock value.

We are being told that nature is brutal and does ugly and unbelievably horrible things. It knows no sense of propriety, decency, or fairness. It is red in tooth and claw.

There is perhaps too much of Treadwell doing retakes of various scenes where he preaches his gospel about bears. But the movie is well worth watching, if only for the spectacular Alaskan scenes, including some of glacier formations that are like nothing I’d ever seen before.

Treadwell’s parents are still alive (or were when the film was made, 2005) and were interviewed. Aside from them and some friends, he appears to be disconnected from the rest of the world. But what about the fox he seems to have had with him as a sort of pet dog for 10 years?

Why didn’t he think about this fox who had learned to trust him, to count on him, when he tackled the dangerous business of snuggling up to grizzly bears?

For that matter, what about the young woman with him, who may not have shared his unconditional love of bears? Why did she have to be sacrificed as well? He did try to save her, it must be said. He is heard shouting to her to run at the very end….
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