Rent Grizzly Man (2005)

Herzog, and the extremes of human life. - Grizzly Man review by Steve

Herzog investigates the life of Timothy Treadwell, a conflicted loner who had spun some minor celebrity out of his close cohabitation with grizzly bears in Alaska; and he and his girlfriend's death by them. A story of two obsessives, Treadwell and the dry, inquisitive Herzog, with a brilliant narration from the director.

Disappointing - Grizzly Man review by CP Customer

I found Treadwell pretty cringeworthy to watch. Going off on odd rants and telling all the wildlife how much he loved them. He seemed overly fixated on the fact that the bears could kill him. It would be interesting enough as a 1 hour TV documentary but a little long winded at over 1 and a 1/2 hours.

A very odd tale - Grizzly Man review by DW

I am forever intrigued by Herzog and the stories he chooses to tell, whether in documentary form or as a feature film. Ever since Aguire, Wrath of God, in the far distant past, through other collaborations with Klaus Kinski, and onto these more recent documentaries, he pursues his own distinct curiosity as to what motivates the individual to venture into worlds apart from the normal human experience.

Timothy Treadwell's quest brings to mind the heroic, but quite mad, Fitzcaraldo, intent on building an opera house in the jungle. Whilst Treadwell didn't actually need to haul a ship over the mountains, his determination to live with the grizzlies in Alaska, alone apart from his camera, filming himself alongside the bears, forever proclaiming how only he understood them and was fit to protect them, yet all the while telling us how dangerous were these animals and how he was risking his life in the pursuit of their protection. These films, shown back in the US when Alaska was in the grip of winter, gave him both celebrity and notoriety. Either way, he didn't seem to care. What he went to great pains to hide, though, was the fact that he was rarely alone but almost always had a girlfriend along. Obviously the bears could not provide all the companionship he needed. That what he predicted, that the bears would eventually kill him, came true. That his girlfriend died too was, of course, the bigger tragedy. I feel that the film could have stood more vigorous editing but all the same, Herzog makes a good job of combining Treadwell's film archive with his own to good effect.