Grizzly Man (2005) by Werner Herzog - (8/10)

Overall I do prefer Herzog’s “documentaries” over his “movies”. The distinction between the two is rather vague with Herzog, non existent perhaps even. Movies will often not only be shot as documentaries but they will contain, real events such as the hand (Herzog’s own) reaching out to safe a man from falling of the mountain and dying in Aguirre, the famous boat-scene in Fitzcarraldo, casting a mentally ill man in a movie and than shaping the movie in such a way that the main character will suffer from similar misfortunes in order to get something real as opposed to acting (Stroszeck & The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser), etc.
Documentaries on the other hand will have staged scenes, made-up facts, biased opinions and will be centred around a plot that plays out more like a movie than a documentary. Purists might be disgusted by such practices and they are indeed in conflict with modern day philosophies. In the early days of documentaries such practices were common, right down to the arguable father of the documentary Robert Flaherty. The quest of a documentary is to find a truth – the authors truth – sometimes such practices will get a person closer to the truth. I am in favour of Herzog’s approach, I can certainly enjoy a purist documentary, I could debate and defend his practices for hours. Plenty of interesting things have been written about his approach, I have found the majority of the criticism ludicrous.

Grizzly Man was the biggest financial and critical success that Herzog had in years when he released it. This was not without reason, it is not only one of the best things that he has ever done, it is a downright masterpiece or at least very close to it.
Grizzly Man paints the picture of Timothy Treadwell, a man obsessed with grizzly bears, who goes out into the wilderness of Alaska for many years, once a year in the summer in order to spend time with them and observe them. He deeply cares and respects the animals but he is also highly delusional. His obsession stems forth from personal problems and an inability to fit into human society. He overemphasis his role in protecting these animals (virtually non-existent) and suffers from delusions of grandeur and narcissism. He views himself as the protector and saviour of these animals. This way he manages to find meaning to his own life but he is living what many would consider a fairytale. He seeks too much comfort and compassion in animals that do not care for humans. Eventually he gets too close, having lost all contact with reality, he goes to far in the hopes of becoming a grizzly bear himself and gets killed. Using footage that Timothy Treadwell filmed himself, Herzog tells us his own vision of the story and edits it down to show us the man himself. A man that he admires as a filmmaker whose passion and love for grizzlies is admirable in a way. Also a man that is simply too delusional and unhappy with life itself that choose to cross a boundary that men should not cross. It is a story that is told masterfully, critically but deeply humanely at the same time as well.