Grizzly Man

Werner Herzog Director: Werner Herzog

Overview

Filmmaker Werner Herzog adds another real-life character to his growing pantheon of people who walk a fine line between visionary genius and madness in this documentary. Timothy Treadwell was a self-styled authority on bears who, starting in 1990, would spend as much time as possible each year in Alaska, camping out near a grizzly bear habitat. While Treadwell claimed to love the bears and felt as one with them, he had no formal training in their behavior, and while familiarizing himself with the creatures he would walk within a few feet of them with a video camera in hand. To many, Treadwell seemed part man of nature, part conjuror, and part self-promotion expert, but the part that guided his kinship with the bears failed him in 2003, when he and his girlfriend were killed in a grizzly attack. Treadwell shot hundreds of hours of footage of himself and the grizzlies, and Herzog has used this footage as the core of Grizzly Man, a documentary look at Treadwell's life and death, while also including interviews with people who knew him, animal experts, and scientists. Acclaimed British guitarist Richard Thompson composed and performed the film's musical score.

Product Details

Release Date:	12/26/2005
UPC:	0031398186366
Original Release:	2005
Rating:	R
Source:	LIONSGATE - 600000-AEC LGE
Region Code:	1
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Language:	English
Time:	1:44:00
Sales rank:	6,840

Special Features

Closed Caption;"In the Edges: The Grizzly Man Session," a 50-minute documentary on the making of the film's music; 16:9 widescreen version; 2.0 Dolby Surround; Scene selections; Englich closed captions; Spanish subtitles

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Werner Herzog	Narrator,Narrator
Carol Dexter	Self - Treadwell's Mother,Self - Treadwell's Father
Sam Egli	Self - Egli Air Haul
Willy Fulton	Self - Pilot
Marc Gaede	Self - Ecologist,Self - Ecologist
Amie Huguenard	Self
David Letterman	Self
Jewel Palovak	Self
Warren Queeney	Self - Actor and Close Friend
Timothy Treadwell	Self
Larry Van Daele	Self - Bear Biologist
Richard Thompson	Composer

Technical Credits

Werner Herzog

Werner Herzog	Director,Screenwriter
Erik Nelson	Producer,Executive Producer
Kevin Beggs	Executive Producer,Executive Producer,Producer
Billy Campbell	Executive Producer
Phil Fairclough	Executive Producer,Producer
Andrea Meditch	Executive Producer,Producer
Tom Ortenberg	Executive Producer,Producer
Ken King	Sound/Sound Designer
Spence Palermo	Sound/Sound Designer

Editorial Reviews

Grizzly Man is a fascinating nonfiction look at a character so brazen and bizarre, he must be fictional. Werner Herzog plays a more obtrusive role in this film than most documentarists would -- narrating and setting certain events in motion -- but he did not in fact create Timothy Treadwell, the ironically named crackpot who lived among bears in the Alaskan wilderness, eventually losing his life to them. There may have been no other way to do it, but Herzog reveals at the start that Treadwell died, which leaves his video footage as one of those priceless artifacts that charts the twists and turns on a path toward a known, inevitable outcome. Those in search of a snuff film will be disappointed, however; actual audio of Treadwell's mauling does exist, but Herzog refrains from playing it for the audience. He instead focuses on Treadwell's numerous episodes narrating to his camera, over years alongside the bears. These showcase all the ticks, irrationalities, bitter prejudices, manic highs, and depressive lows of this overwrought narcissist and self-proclaimed outcast, who resembles a longer-haired Aaron Eckhart. Less valuable are the interviews with Treadwell's eccentric former friends and acquaintances, whose contributions can border on the unintentionally comic. One particularly misguided scene involves Herzog presenting Treadwell's digital watch to an estranged (and strange) ex-girlfriend, and her getting lost in the profundity of an unsentimental object he didn't even own yet when she knew him. On average, though, Herzog has assembled a really telling portrait, giving the story a necessary spine, and smartly straddling the line between sympathy and criticism. Grizzly Man is one of the most vital documentaries of 2005, a film that reminds viewers that strange truth can be more engrossing than a writer's quirky fiction.