Filmmaker
Werner Herzog commissioned legendary guitarist
Richard Thompson to compose and perform the musical score for his
documentary Grizzly Man, about the life and death of
Timothy Treadwell, a man who fled society to live among the grizzly bears in the Alaskan wilderness. In the manner of
Thompson's previous film scores, the
Grizzly Man album is longer on atmosphere than on songcraft; anyone expecting the
British folk-derived melodies of
Thompson's most familiar work will be disappointed, though if you love the expressive modalities of his electric guitar playing, there's plenty of them on display, and they conjure up the beautiful but dangerous surroundings of
Treadwell's environment very well indeed. Along with some lovely but subdued guitar-based pieces from
Thompson, his periodic collaborator
Henry Kaiser and
Sonic Youth/
Wilco interloper
Jim O'Rourke sit in for a handful of harsher, atonal pieces that represent the more discordant and unforgiving aspects of life among the bears; fans of
Thompson the folkie will probably be turned off by
"Big Racket," "Bear Fight," and
"Corona for Mr. Chocolate," but those who embraced the expressive angularity of the
French-Frith-Kaiser-Thompson recordings will certainly want to hear this. In short, this isn't an essential
Thompson release, but his more discerning fans will find it firmly possessed of the great man's magic, and it offers a trip down a few paths he doesn't often visit. ~ Mark Deming
![Grizzly Man [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]](http://prodimage.images-bn.com/pimages/0843563148594_p0_v1_s90x140.jpg)
![Grizzly Man [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]](http://img.images-bn.com/static/redesign/srcs/images/grey-box.png?v12.9.1)
![Grizzly Man [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]](http://prodimage.images-bn.com/pimages/0843563148594_p0_v1_s600x595.jpg)
