Grizzly Man (2005)

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It's not that we don't trust Werner Herzog, it's that we trust him a little too much. This persona that he has carefully articulated through his documentaries--often with him as a starring character--may indeed be the real Werner, but we just don't know. That he's believable may give us a clue to authenticity, but we still don't know. Maybe those who have met him can vouch for his real personality, and if it turns out to be this one great. But why even question it? Because Herzog's motivation for making the films he does might be based on the character Werner that we know, or it could be based on Herzog, that iconoclastic and difficult filmmaker. If they're one and the same, fine, but if not it changes the intention, and thus the story, of the film.

As for Timothy Treadwell--he also is an unreliable narrator. A self-described protector of the bears, who appears to have done nothing to actually protect their environment. More of a wistful hippie dancing his spirit animal than a biologist making studies. He is the self-assigned crocodile hunter of North America, the man who wanted to be Johnny BearSeed, spreading the word of the Grizzly through whatever school would have him.

The only problem for Treadwell is that he didn't get to edit his documentary. Instead, at the hands of a master, we see all the footage that Treadwell himself would very likely have left on the cutting room floor. His obviously deeply felt, but out of control, outbursts on camera towards random authority figures--god, the government, parks service show a man not in control of his emotions. In order to quiet his personal demons, he needed to move to a place where few other humans go.

In the hands of a Tim Treadwell production, we would have seen the slightly-wacky but very caring creature, as he appeared in public. And, it's no surprise, this former failed actor created his own reality show in which he was the star. There's no way that the bears were the stars of his show. If that was the case, he would set up the cameras and observe, not put himself into the shot. That he did--often obscuring the bears--is obviously an extension of his desires to simply be a bear. Name me one other naturalist who puts themselves above the nature that they're shooting.

Let's not mince words, here--Treadwell was no naturalist. He was all ego in the wild. Taming foxes and baby-talking kodiak bears that stood to nearly twice his height were just some of his offenses. It was best summed up by the Native guy in the museum who said that his people had respected the invisible line between bears and people for 7000 years. Treadwell not only ignored what might be right for the bears (to encounter as few humans as possible), but he ignored the historical understanding bears and humans have held--come to close, get mauled or worse.

So Treadwell is a product of a pop-culture age, raised with Yogi bear and stuffed bears. He anthropomorphized them with cute names and human intentions. He fashioned himself into his picture of what they needed, as if his very presence would somehow save them. From what? Imagined poachers and parks service rangers who were out to do some imaginary harm. What was his real intention, there? He stopped no poachers. Other than vaguely threatening an annoying nature photographer just by videotaping him throw a rock at a cub (a word of advice: where there are cubs there are mother bears, and they get kind of pissed about things like that) he did nothing proactive at all.

But Treadwell, for all his desire to escape and leave the human world, couldn't just go sit and hang out with the grizzlies. He needed to be known as the guy that did that. So, his protestations of independence were really somewhat of a charade for his need for attention. I'm sure he was fun, as a kid, to watch this crazy guy come into your class and talk to you about stuff--but was he educational? Who knows. The watchers of this movie will never know.

See, but there is the rub--Herzog manipulated us. He first made us like Treadwell, and think he knew his shit--and then he carefully undid that view over course of the movie. By the end, we think Treadwell is a bit of a lunatic. So, is my review just playing right into his hands? Is this exactly what he wanted me to feel?

Any objective view is that Treadwell must have done something right, because he managed to survive up there for so long. Maybe it was luck, maybe it was more--but we'll never know Herzog told us the story he wanted us to see, and had us feel the things he wanted us to feel. As for the rest? Well. I'm satisfied. I'll buy in. I like this Herzog, be he real or a figment of his own talent.