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March 26, 2008
'Grizzly Man'
Werner Herzog's mesmerizing 2005 documentary about Timothy Treadwell, who spent twelve consecutive summers living in the wild in Alaska with grizzly bears, all the while filming his encounters yet never being harmed, got better and better as it went along.
Even the knowledge that summer number thirteen was to be unlucky indeed for Treadwell and his girlfriend, both of whom were eaten alive by a grizzly bear (no, there's no footage of these events, but the descriptions by those who heard the audio tape and found their remains is more than vivid enough, trust me), did not make the film and Herzog's quiet, sensitive, thoughtful narration and exploration of just what it was that made Treadwell the unique person he was any less absorbing.
Highly recommended.
March 26, 2008 at 04:01 PM | Permalink
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Comments
Have to agree with lB and especially with e. This will sound callous to you I'm sure considering your take on the documentary but, halfway through, I was hoping the bears would eat him already.
Posted by: Milena | Mar 27, 2008 9:34:11 PM
Sorry J, have to disagree with you in this case. I thought the doco was pretty dull and Treadwell was terrible.
I don't think he was particularly unique, just loony and super super obsessed with being 'famous'. I think he wanted to be Steve Irwin, just less informed, less intelligent, less sane and more desperate.
Posted by: IB | Mar 27, 2008 2:02:27 AM
I've been meaning to see this for a while. Werner Herzog is one of those directors I really need to dive into's work. Rescue Dawn was a great film and I've gathered was just a taste of what the man's previous films have in store for me. Thanks for the reminder.
Posted by: Cory Capron | Mar 27, 2008 1:47:24 AM
Odd, I saw this as a documentary about an insane man because of whose irresponsibility a woman died and a bear had to be killed. And there's actually no evidence that he was there for the twelve summers, at least the documentary didn't give any. I will agree that the documentary was absorbing but how was it an "exploration of just what it was that made Treadwell the unique person he was"? There's no discussion of his mental illness or even a mention of it. Do you think he was sane? If he was unique I would venture to say that we all are even if we don't need to go to Alaska to risk our lives and rant in front of a camera about how much good we do while actually doing harm.
I will add that I find your Blog to be the best of the "non-techie" blogs I read, I'm amazed and happy you have the time for it. If you haven't seen it you may want to check out Tom Dowd and the Language of Music; no bears, just a guy who worked on the Manhattan Project and then became a music engineer who worked with Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding, John Coltrane, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonius Monk, Cream, Rod Stewart, Lynyrd Skynyrd and many others. No, I did not participate in its production nor will I make any money from it in any way and yes I did copy and paste the list of artists, though not in its entirety. Oh, and the documentary actually "documents" all of their claims about Mr. Dowd. Now there was a unique guy whom we can't claim was an ordinary nut looking for attention.
Your Humble (or not) reader,
e.
Posted by: e | Mar 26, 2008 10:38:40 PM
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