It's hard not to walk away from Grizzly Man thinking, 'Wow, what a truly remarkable nutjob.' The documentary follows Timothy Treadwell's summer visits to Alaska to commune with grizzly bears. All bear footage was shot by Treadwell himself with a handheld video camera. It was later assembled into a complete film with the addition of various interviews with Treadwell's friends and family members as well as other individuals that came into contact with Treadwell during his jaunts. Werner Herzog does a superb job of editing the footage to give you a complete picture of Treadwell the man, what brought him to the bears, why he continued to go every summer, and most importantly, what he thought he was accomplishing. It's obvious that Treadwell is convinced that he's protecting the bears although it's never clear exactly what he's protecting them from.
As the film progresses, it's almost painful to watch as he becomes more and more infatuated with the 700 lb animals punctuated by some really crazy ramblings about his love for them. The kicker is when he oohs and aahs for several minutes over a pile of freshly deposited bear scat. At that point it's clear that his visions of grandeur will eventually lead to disaster. You can probably guess how things go from there.
All said and done Grizzly Man really is a great film. As crazy as Treadwell comes off, the bear and critter footage he got is truly remarkable given his lack of film-making experience. And there are several light-hearted moments that demonstrate his passion and love of wildlife.
