Grizzly Man

Ever hear about people who sneak into polar bear cages and get mauled to death? Do you wonder what type of idiot thinks that the polar bears are like the cute creatures in the Coke ads? Grizzly Man might give you an insight into these folks. After the utter embarrassment that was Incident at Loch Ness, it was hard to get excited about a Werner Herzog film. But Grizzly Man shows that everyone's favorite extreme German director is back except this time he's not the madman with the camera.

The movie is about Timothy Treadwell, an alcoholic actor -- he claims it was down to him and Woody Harrelson for the role of Woody on Cheers -- who cleaned up his act and spent his new sober life roaming the wildness of Alaska with grizzly bears. After a few years of keeping journals about his days with the maneaters, Treadwell brought a camcorder with him so he could have video for his presentations to school kids.

There's a fearsome beauty to these bears. Treadwell's camera captures this allure as he inches up on them. But he's not satisfied with using zoom lenses. He reaches from behind the camera to pet a bear's nose as if it was a cocker spaniel. He seems to be the inspiration for MTV's Wild Boyz where the Jackass superstars also get way too close to nature. Except Treadwell's finally got too close and was eaten by a grizzly bear.

It's not hard to imagine why Herzog had to edit Treadwell's videos and piece together the eco-warrior's life and death. They share a kindred cinematic spirit. These are two filmmakers that won't settle for less than the extreme truth. And after watching My Best Fiend, it's easy to imagine Klaus Kinski as a grizzly bear. Kinski wanted to kill Herzog on their film sets (although Herzog never reached from behind the camera to touch Klaus' nose). While the German director is obsessed by his films, he's never been devoured by one of his subjects.

The most sobering moment in the film involves Herzog's response to hearing the audio of Treadwell and Amie Huguenard being attacked by the grizzly. I won't give this away. You'll have to watch it. But it's not gruesome. Grizzly Man could have been churned out as a Faces of Death sequel, but Herzog doesn't exploit Treadwell's death with the lurid. Instead, he explores Treadwell's loss of lucidity.

We see the naturalist getting emotional after feeling a bear's feces. He views himself as the protector of the bears. While he disparages the human world, he expects civilized behavior in the primitive wilderness. He gets upset when the bears act like animals. Herzog doesn't believe in his subject's hunky dory view of nature. Herzog also distances himself from the dead filmmaker when he sees Treadwell give a Kinski-worthy on-camera tirade. They are not true kindred spirits.

This is my favorite movie of 2005 and it really demands a second viewing. Everything Treadwell says comes back to haunt him. I'd even recommend this film for middle school kids who need to learn that, no matter how cute and cuddly furry creatures may look, they will attack you. The cages at the zoo are there for a reason.

The only bonus feature is "In the Edges: The Grizzly Man Session," a 50-minute documentary about Herzog bringing in Richard Thompson, Henry Kaiser, Jim O'Rourke (Sonic Youth), and other musicians to improvise compositions instead of hiring a conventional Hollywood composer. The director didn't show them the movie until they arrived in the studio so all the musical themes were created on the spot.

Herzog sits in the studio between the musicians and directs them with his eyes and posture. He feeds them visions of what the music needs to reflect, not merely saying "make it sound like Star Wars!" There's some great moments such as O'Rourke impersonating Treadwell with a warning about the dangerous Herzog in the studio. If you have any interest in unconventional film scoring, this is a must for the collection. -- Joe Corey