Grizzly Man

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Movie
German title Grizzly Man
Original title Grizzly Man
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 2005
length 103 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Werner Herzog
script Werner Herzog
production Erik Nelson
music Richard Thompson
camera Peter Zeitlinger
cut Joe Bini
occupation
  • Carol Dexter: herself (Treadwell's mother)
  • Val Dexter: himself (Treadwell's father)
  • Sam Egli: himself (Egli Air Haul)
  • Francis G. Fallico: himself (coroner)
  • Willy Fulton: himself (pilot)
  • Marc Gaede: himself (environmentalist)
  • Marnie Gaede: herself (environmentalist)
  • Sven Haakanson Jr .: himself (director of the  Alutiiq Museum )
  • Amie Huguenard: Herself (archive footage)
  • David Letterman: Himself (archive footage)
  • Jewel Palovak: herself (girlfriend, co-founder of Grizzly People , co-author)
  • Kathleen Parker: herself (girlfriend)
  • Warren Queeney: himself (friend, actor)
  • Larry Van Daele: himself (bear researcher)

Grizzly Man is a critical documentary by Werner Herzog about animal rights activist Timothy Treadwell , who lived with grizzly bears in Alaska for 13 summers . Treadwell and his girlfriend at the time Amie Huguenard were attacked, killed and partially eaten by a bear outside their tent in early October 2003.

action

Much of the film is made up of Timothy Treadwell's unique video footage shot over the past five years and spanning nearly a hundred hours. Treadwell himself can often be seen in these recordings.

Herzog contrasts the naivety of the man, who wanted to see the bears as being his equal, gave them names, established personal, loving relationships and introduced the teddy bear "accompanying" him to his audience, through interviews with people from Treadwell's environment such as the bush pilot Willy Fulton , who had flown the filmmaker in and out for years and alerted the park attendants when he was supposed to pick up the couple on October 6th, but instead found the bear on an open corpse. The coroner , Treadwell's parents, Jewel Palovak and other friends also have their say .

Timothy Treadwell wanted to show the world the need for protection of animals and prevent bear hunting - even at the cost of his life, as he explains again and again. During the winter he worked temporarily in the hospitality industry, but also gave free lectures with his videos, for example in schools, had written a book, was recently a celebrity and was also a guest of David Letterman .

The last phase of the last expedition is also documented. For example, an unusually long take, shot the day before the fatal attack, shows an old bear diving for salmon carcasses. The commentary in Herzog's film says that this animal, which was unknown to the filmmaker and which only visited the area after the "befriended" bears left, was probably no longer strong enough to hunt. The photo may show the 28-year-old bear "141", in whose digestive tract body parts and rags of the two adventurers' clothes were found a little later.

Herzog is deeply fascinated by this border crosser, whose film work, which "goes far beyond the boundaries of nature film" he pays the highest respect, but also shows sequences in which Treadwell is immeasurably indignant in front of his own camera about people who are near him get close to the bears. A smiley face painted on a stone by a visitor near the camp, or the text message Hi Timothy. See you summer 2001. on a branch he mentions “possible death threat”. The park administration, whose regulations he constantly violates, becomes an enemy. Herzog takes these clips as an indication of at least a temporary paranoia.

Treadwell himself admits that his camp and his stay in the immediate vicinity of the bears mocked any safety rules necessary for visitors (in open terrain, a minimum distance of a hundred yards must be observed, one learns in the film). He knew that the last camp in the “grizzly maze” in which he perished was the most dangerous because of the dense alder bushes.

Herzog also criticized the fact that Treadwell stylized himself as a "lonely caller": he repeated his self-portrayal appearances up to fifteen times, while the respective companions, who sometimes also lead the camera, hardly ever appeared in the picture and were never mentioned. He also contradicts Treadwell's view, which seeks to recognize expression, even feeling, in the animals' faces - Herzog only accepts what he calls “instinct aimed at mere survival”. He contrasts Treadwell's attempt to become part of the grizzly world himself with comments from Sven Haakanson Jr. , Native American and director of the Alutiiq Museum , and bear researcher Larry Van Daele. The former attributes Treadwell to a lack of respect for the grizzlies, which caused the deaths of two people and two bears and ultimately damaged Treadwell's mission. The latter advocates the controlled shooting of bears.

Treadwell's camera also recorded the couple's death, but only as an audio recording: Amie Huguenard had forgotten or had no time to remove the cover from the lens.

Herzog, who is shown listening to this sound recording, describes how he is so shaken by the desperate struggle for survival that he does not include the recording in his film: Treadwell, awaiting death, asks his girlfriend to run away. Instead, the woman, who was always afraid of bears and who had threatened to leave Treadwell shortly before because of his death wish, tried to fend off the grizzly with a frying pan. According to Duke Amie Huguenard's last recorded screams, they are almost unbearable. The tape ends before she is killed by the bear. The desperate struggle had lasted about six minutes. He advises the heiress of the tape, Jewel Palovak, to destroy it without listening to it, which she promises.

Herzog sees the real meaning of Treadwell's cinematic life's work less in the documentation of the animal world than in the insight into the human psyche, as he says at the end of his film.

criticism

Grizzly Man was recognized by most of the critics. The Metacritic review collection has 35 reviews, 34 of which are positive, and awards 87 out of a possible 100 points. Of the 136 reviews evaluated by Rotten Tomatoes , 93% are positive. In summary it says: "Whatever opinion you may come to about the obsessive Treadwell, Werner Herzog has once again found a fascinating topic."

The film met with criticism from Nick Jans, the author of the book The Grizzly Maze (" Grizzly Maze " is what Treadwell called the bear path traversed alder scrub on Upper Kaflia Lake, where he was killed). Jans, for example, criticizes Herzog's selection from Treadwell's video material, which he calls tendentious, and contradicts the plausible "possible insanity" that makes it. In addition, Herzog's film harms the bears by further accelerating the hype of “bear viewing” and attracting even more tourists to the bear area.

Awards and nominations

Awards

Nominations

  • 2006: Nominated for the Eddie in the category Best Edited Documentary for Joe Bini by the American Cinema Editors
  • 2006: Nominated for the BFCA Award for Best Documentary by the Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards
  • 2005: Nominated for the Gotham Award for Best Documentary
  • 2006: Nominated for the Independent Spirit Award in the Best Documentary Film category
  • 2006: Nominated for the Grand Jury Prize in the World Cinema - Documentary category for Werner Herzog at the Sundance Film Festival

Others

The music is by Richard Thompson . At the end of the film, Don Edwards sings the song Coyotes .

Notes and sources

  1. ↑ http://www.yellowstone-bearman.com/Tim_Treadwell.html
  2. ↑ For example: "I would never ever kill a bear in defense of my own life." (Treadwell; Grizzly Man script)
  3. ↑ "Is it going to happen that one day we read a news article about you being eaten by one of these bears?" (David Letterman, followed by laughter in the hall; Youtube, 0:47 min )
  4. ↑ As usual, Treadwell broke off his camp in the “grizzly maze” at the end of September. Because their return ticket to California was declared invalid when they checked into Kodiak , the couple had returned to the reservation for "a few days". (Grizzly Man script)
  5. ↑ "Here he may have filmed his murderer." (Grizzly Man script)
  6. ↑ The age could be determined fairly precisely because this animal was anesthetized in 1990 and marked with a tattoo. Based on the tooth extracted on this occasion, the age was determined to be 15 years.
  7. ↑ "... I discover no kinship, no understanding, no mercy. I see only the overwhelming indifference of nature. " (Herzog; Grizzly Man script)
  8. ↑ Towards the evening of October 6th, another bear approached the investigative commission, could not be driven away by screams and a warning shot and was hunted. The animal was about three years old and possibly just curious. It is not clear whether it had eaten off the corpses, since its carcass had already been eaten on October 8, the day Bear 141 was dissected.
  9. ↑ The coroner believes that the bear's first bite scalped Treadwell, followed by a bite in the hip or thigh. (Grizzly Man script)
  10. ↑ For example: “I want to die for these animals. I want the for these animals. I want the for these animals. Thank you so much for letting me do this. " (Treadwell; Grizzly Man script)
  11. ↑ Herzog and the coroner Franc G. Fallico rather hint in the film. Kevin Sanders describes the process in detail .
  12. ↑ "... That it is not so much a look at wild nature as it is an insight into ourselves, our nature. And that, for me, beyond his mission, gives meaning to his life and to his death. " (Herzog; Grizzly Man script)
  13. ↑ Grizzly Man. In: Metacritic. Retrieved April 17, 2016 .
  14. ↑ Grizzly Man. In: www.rottentomatoes.com. August 12, 2005, accessed April 17, 2016 .
  15. ↑ "He saw himself as an actor and he was a chameleon his whole life." At the end of an interview ( memento of the original from September 1, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English). @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / failuremag.com

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