GrizzlyMan Tagged Articles at Cinematical

 Just in case you haven't gotten your quota of movie-related bizarre today, here's one that's sure to satisfy. The BBC was videotaping an interview with Wener Herzog about 2005 movie Grizzly Man, a documentary about how young environmentalists Timothy Treadwell and Amie Huguenard were killed by bears while attempting to live among them in Alaska. (The movie was reviewed this past August by our own Ryan Stewart.) Cue the bizarre: while filming an outside scene, some miscreant shot at Herzog with an air rifle, apparently hitting him in the abdomen. Herzog insisted he wasn't hurt, and said he didn't want the BBC to try and chase down the offender.

The bizarro scene is even more amazing considering the interview that follows. At the interview's 4:00 minute mark, we see Herzog sitting with Treadwell's ex-girlfriend, listening to the tape that Treadwell made during the attack; the lens cap was on Treadwell's video camera, so only the sound was captured. Herzog whispers to the woman: "Julie, you must never listen to this."  "I know, Werner," she replies tearfully, "I'm never going to." (Herzog chose not to include the audio in his film.) In another clip, Herzog describes Treadwell's irrational fearlessness of nature, and his belief that the natural world was in "balance and harmony". "I believe the common denominator of the universe is not harmony," intones Herzog, "but chaos, hostility, and murder."

Maybe the shooter was just trying to drive the point home.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences once again proved its critical acumen and relevancy when, late last year, they failed to add Grizzly Man to their short list of possible Best Documentary Oscar noms. But don't worry, AMPAS – Werner Herzog will have his revenge. That's the takeaway from Travis and Jonathan's Grizzly Man spoof currently making the rounds. It's amazing how a big fuzzy bear suit has the ability to transform tragedy into comedy. Now, repeat after "Werner": "To engrave the Oscar, it is H-E-R-Z-O-G. It's about time, seriously. I drug a boat over a mountain, for chrissakes. Give me some props."

[via Defamer]

• The Skeleton Key: The camp crapterpiece this summer has been waiting for. If you find yourself wondering how Kate Hudson's curls stay so lusciously bouncy in all that swampland humidty, you're probably operating on the right level with this one.
• Pretty Persuasion: Evan Rachel Wood prances around in a Catholic school girl outfit until Ron Livingston finds himself in a good deal of trouble. James Woods also stars.
  
• Four Brothers: John Singleton's latest follows four adopted (wait for it ) brothers who team up to avenge ... something. Deidre Woollard called it "quite enjoyable", "despite the massive amounts of often needless violence and a bit of unbelievability (wouldn't these guys get arrested after the first time they started injuring people and damaging property?)"
• The Great Raid: Part of the Great Miramax Shelf Dump, it's a Benjamin Bratt war movie, and one pretty much expects it to go in one weekend and out the other. According to Stephen Holden, "about the only thing to be said on behalf of [this] tedious World War II epic that slogs across the screen like a forced march in quicksand, is that it illustrates a depressing similarity between reckless war-mongering and grandiose moviemaking."
• Grizzly Man: Werner Herzog returns to form with a doc about Timothy Treadwell, a man who literally lived and died by grizzly bears. "Here is a man who managed to get himself and his girlfriend eaten, and you know what?," writes Roger Ebert. "He deserves Werner Herzog."
• The Aristocrats: Expands to about 80 screens; will go semi-wide next Friday.