Grizzly Man
Rated: R I thought Murderball would easily be the best documentary of 2005 but now that I’ve seen Grizzly Man, I think it’s one of the best documentaries I’ve ever seen in any year. If I ever taught a class on documentary filmmaking, this film would be required. Werner Herzog’s film of a man living among grizzly bears at first seems amusing but it quickly becomes apparent that it’s the story of an ego maniac trying to rule a kingdom that isn’t his. 
Timothy Treadwell lived amongst Grizzly Bears in the Alaskan Peninsula for 13 years and he decided to videotape the last five of those years. In 2003, he and his girlfriend Amy were killed and eaten by a bear. The camera was running, but the lens cap was on so only the audio of these two people being ripped to shreds remains. Thankfully, Herzog has the decency not to play this for us and instead we just get to see the look on his face as he listens to the tape while Treadwell’s ex-girlfriend and colleague looks on in horror. Here’s the thing about Treadwell: he was kind of a dick. At various points in the film, those who knew him said he wanted to become a bear, but I don't think that's true. I think he liked his self-proclaimed role as caretaker of the bears (although Herzog implies that since these bears were on a wildlife preserve and because of the low percentage of poachers, they didn't need his protection). I don't have a problem with Treadwell's imagined life and how he liked to portray himself. We all do that, especially in our role as storyteller (as evidenced by the retelling of aspects of Treadwell's death by the pilot who found his body and the coroner who performed the autopsy). What bothers me about Treadwell is that he went out into this wilderness and tried to treat wild animals as if they were domesticated. He didn't respect these animals but rather treated them like pets, dubbing them with such respectful names like "Mr. Chocolate" and "Sgt. Brown". I'm not against naming bears, but these names in particular are just another example of Treadwell's ignorance. He was not a biologist, or an ecologist, or an expert of any kind (then again, I don't know if you can go to school and major in Bear Protection; although you can major in Environmental Studies where you can learn that co-habituation with bears is not a good idea for a variety of reasons). For example, he gets frustrated when nature isn't picturesque and his bears eat their own in order to survive. He just has no respect for nature and the wild. His ego is so enormous that it seems like he wants the wilderness to be a kind of Disneyland and that if it doesn't rain he can push God around like the guy working the controls at Space Mountain. So why do I love this film if I can’t stand the central character? Because Grizzly Man isn’t so much about Treadwell and trying to make us like him or even identify with him, but rather it's a meditation on the ego of the artist and the force of self-image. I like that there’s a parallel between Treadwell and Herzog even though the two men never met. Treadwell sees himself as caretaker of the bears and Herzog sees himself as caretaker of Treadwell's story. And we can see that in this role of power, there's self-examination at work and I think that's what interests Herzog. Herzog easily could have made this a straightforward documentary. But instead he chooses to personally narrate the film and also comment on Treadwell's filmmaking. This also sometimes provides the film's only weakness as Herzog doesn't seem to always trust the audience to figure out the artistry and themes on display. However, I do like that while Herzog voices his disagreement with Treadwell's opinion of nature, he also respects Treadwell enough to let us see both sides of the argument. Is nature, as Treadwell sees it, rich in its complexity yet soothing in its harmony? Or is it simply indifferent, as Herzog believes it to be. So why would I make this film required viewing for a documentary class? Because first, it’s a documentary about a documentary maker, which is kind of neat. Second, because it shows how documentaries create characters both consciously and unconsciously. Watching Grizzly Man, it’s almost like Herzog wants to write more about these character but the restraint of the documentary stops him, which is why he laments being unable to uncover the mystery of both Amy and the bear that eventually killed her and Treadwell. And aside from a documentary, the film is just a great examination of the relation between the domestic and the wild and where the artist fits in between the two. Treadwell, it seems, wanted to tame the wild by subsuming into his work. I love films that make me think about what they’re saying while I’m still watching them. Grizzly Man had my mind going so fast that I actually had to pause it and take notes. And since this film is also about the relation of artist to subject, it’s filling my ego right now as I try to subsume Herzog’s work in my (hopefully) entertaining and/or informative movie review. And any film that makes me feel good about being a critic is just some sort of crazy masterpiece. Words by |