Grizzly Werner

I caught Grizzly Man this evening with Ben. What a film! Of course, I am total Werner Herzog's bitch so this is in no way an unbiased review. The footage of Timothy Treadwell and the bears is staggering and it would have been an interesting film even if Treadwell hadn't been eaten by a bear, but it Herzog makes it an even greater film through his deft editing and limited but pointed narration. Herzog goes so far as to directly criticize Treadwell's choices rather than using a talking head surrogate or other technique.

In a lot of ways Grizzly Man is the anti-penguin movie. Nature is not presented here as cute and harmonious but nasty, chaotic, and brutal. My few experiences in the raw wilderness of Alaska that I had growing up let feeling the same thing. Civilization protects us from nature and left alone in the wilderness we are fucked.