Grizzly Man reviewed; The story of what happens when a mentally unstable person attempts to live with grizzly bears

Grizzly Man is the story of what happens when a desperate, mentally unstable person decides to stop taking his meds and commit suicide in a very unique way: by taunting grizzly bears.

As the film starts we are introduced to a quirky, but seemingly sane animal researcher and environmentalist, Timothy Treadwell. He sits in the foreground of the beautiful Alaskan wilderness as huge grizzle bears slowly meander through their daily lives. You get the sense that he is a little too close to the bears, but since he's an expert who's lived amongst the grizzly bears in Alaska for 13 seasons you figure he knows what he's doing.

German director Werner Herzog quickly fills us in on exactly how close Treadwell does get to the bears (he touches them on the nose while holding his video camera in the other hand), and how exactly dangerous this behavior is (grizzly bears, when hungry enough, are known to hunt and eat humans).

As Treadwell goes on and on talking about how much he loves, loves, loves (really loves!!!) these animals in a frenetic and oddly effeminate way, you realize that this is not a stable person hamming it up for the camera.

Twenty minutes into the film you realize that Treadwell might as well be jumping into an ocean filled with great white sharks—there is no way he's going to survive, even if he has done this for 13 years without a scratch. In a spell of obvious foreshadowing David Letterman asks Treadwell if we're going to open up the paper someday and find out if he was killed by the bears. Well, duh?!?!

Once it’s established that Treadwell is going to die the only thing the audience has left to do is determine why on earth Treadwell is acting this way, and why for the last two years of his adventure he brought his girlfriend Amie Huguenard, who by the way is afraid of the bears, with him.

Herzog reveals Treadwell’s failure-filled background between beautiful videos Treadwell shot during his and Amie’s last weeks, days and hours alive. Some of the animal footage is amazing, but it’s not the most amazing thing ever shot as Herzog claims during his overly-dramatic voiceovers. Herzog’s opinion chimes in often, and adds little to the film.

Early in the film I leaned over to a fellow movie reviewer and asked “do you think he’s gay?” An odd question since his girlfriend is a major plot point of the film. My friend said she was just thinking that herself, adding that Treadwell reminded her of Carson Kressley from Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. He does have a striking resemblance and persona.
 
Moments later Treadwell goes into a bizarre monolog about how great he is with the ladies, but how much better his life would be if he was gay. After detailing all the ways life would be better if he was gay, he gets macho and says how he just loves women too much to do it. OK, sure.

Herzog has to address this because everyone in the theater is thinking about it; at least that is what I thought. After the speech, you start putting together the pieces: Treadwell is a washed up actor who fixes his hair constantly, he dances around the forest with his pet foxes screaming like a 12-year-old girl, he “Loves! Loves! Loves!” everything, and he sleeps with his childhood teddy bear.

Not that those thing make the audience sure Treadwell is gay, in the closet, or in denial. Maybe he is in denial and suffering from not accepting his sexuality, which would explain his charged monologue in which he argues the pros and cons of being straight and gay.

Herzog doesn’t bring even bring the issue up—at least not directly.

When describing Treadwell’s childhood the director shows a picture of the teenage Treadwell working at a garden store. The camera then pans across the photo to a truck with the word PANSIES written on it in big bold letters. At that moment at least a dozen people in the audience burst out laughing. Was Herzog giving us a hint of something he didn’t want to say out loud? If so, why do it this way? Perhaps it was just a wild coincidence that 25% of the audience laughed out loud at this? I hope it’s a hint, because if Herzog didn’t pick up on this he’s blind.

Another frustrating moment in the film unfolds as Herzog listens to the audio taken at the final moments of Treadwell and Amie’s life. Turns out that Treadwell’s obsessive taping almost captured his death, although the camera was running Treadwell didn’t have time to take the lens cap off—or maybe he left it on! That’s why I love documentaries—you just can’t make this stuff up.

Treadwell’s previous girlfriend is in possession of the final tape, and she lets Herzog listen to it. As Herzog listens to the tape on oversized headphones, he gets emotional. He abruptly asks for her to turn it off. He then tells her sternly how she must never, never listen to the tape. She must never lay eyes on the pictures from the morgue. In fact, she must destroy this tape, for if she doesn’t it will be the big white elephant in the room for the rest of her life.

This stern warning, delivered in Herzog’s thick German accent, seems heavy-handed and hypocritical. He alone is capable of listening to the tape, but Treadwell’s friends, not to mention the audience, are not?

Perhaps Treadwell’s previous girlfriend wouldn’t give permission to play the final minutes of his life, in which he tells the bear to let go and to go away (that last command was demonstrated to work for him in the past).

You wonder, does Treadwell or Amie say things in their final moments that the director, or his ex-girlfriend don’t want us to hear? Perhaps it’s just really morbid and Herzog doesn’t want to show it. Honestly, after watching powerful bears fight, kill, and feed during the film you can easily fill in the blanks (not to mention the fact that the rescue team killed the bear that ate Treadwell and Amie, recovering their body parts from the stomach).

Despite the fact that Herzog doesn’t address some import issues, and he interjects his opinion unnecessarily, this is a very compelling documentary. This doc is almost worth seeing for the footage, but its true value comes when you combine that with a study in what happens when a mentally ill person pursues their delusions.

It’s easy to dismiss Treadwell as a self-spun reality-TV star who will do anything—even risk his life—to get ratings. However, it’s clear that in Treadwell’s mind, he believed he had a connection with the bears and that being part of their world was his destiny. He knew he would die, he says it over and over again in the film. He also says he doesn’t mind dying with the bears. In his mind it’s worth the risk to have those exhilarating, peak moments in his life. That’s the same argument you’ll here from people who skydive, bungee jump, take drugs, or drive without a seatbelt. We all calculate and make judgments about acceptable risks on a daily basis—Treadwell just had a different acceptance point.

This film will be adapted into a drama within the next year—and that film, no matter how good, will not compare to the raw footage assembled by Herzog.