Grizzly Man Review

The movie Grizzly Man by Werner Herzog is about a man, Timothy Treadwell, and his girlfriend, Amie Huguenard, who have been killed by a grizzly bear. Treadwell has for more than a decade been living with Grizzlys up in Alaska. Treadwell's prime concern was for protecting the bears and increasing awareness of their lives in order to help protect them.


This movie does a great job of explaining who Treadwell was and why he was doing it. More than just explaining Treadwell's story through narration however, the director, Herzog lets the viewer see footage of Treadwell's own movie. This footage explain Treadwell's reasoning but also tells the story from a first person point of view. I really feel like I know something about Treadwell because I have seen him and also know a little about his past. That was another good thing- that Herzog interviewed Treadwell's parents and friends who told a little background about Treadwell's life. That helped me to understand Treadwell's background and even link together why he was the way he was.


One thing I didn't like very much was how close the narrator got to the friend of Treadwell, his older girlfriend. When Herzog listen to the tape of Treadwell's recorded death, it bothered me a little that he said that she needs to destroy it. he then goes on to hold her hands and though he's giving her support, and good adive perhaps, it makes me confused about the relatinoship of Herzog and his subjects. Also its just not fun to see bonding between people. That stuff is personal and I try to turn my eyes from it in real life and give it space but it just feels ackward to have to watch it and wait for them to hold each other. One moment in filming that didn't sit right was when he was interviewing the pilot and he just kept zooming and zooming in really slowly. The zoom didn't have any pupose and got too close to the guy's face. I felt that there were a few other instances of this throughout the movie. I found myself confused at the purpose of some shots.

For just a little something more- Treadwell makes me so mad. This movie really hit some emotions in me and I had to turn it off for a little while. What this guy did was not accurate. I'm not going to get all heartfelt for creatures that routinely eat their young, something that he knew was going on and even filmed the evidence. I've also seem footage of bears hunting their young. Bears are not happy play buddies. Anybody else feel the same way?