Grizzly Man

The documentaries of Werner Herzog are always about something more than their ostensible subject, and here the theme is styles of self-dramatization. Not just of Timothy Treadwell, who obsessively filmed himself interacting with grizzly bears in the remote Alaskan wilds -- until one ate him -- but of every other person who appears in the film, including the director himself. With hundreds of hours of Treadwell’s filming to work with, Herzog constructs a meditation on wildness, environmentalism, personal weaknesses and coping strategies, filmmaking, and a whole savory pot of bear stew. The up-close footage of bears in the wild, foraging and fighting, is extremely vivid, even if the animals are continually upstaged by Treadwell himself. I’m sure Herzog left out most of the “Wild Kingdom for kiddies” footage and focussed on those frames where Tim’s damaged self-assertion were strongest. But everybody gets in the act: the coroner, a bush pilot, old girlfriends, each seeks to dramatize their touch with celebrity, just as Treadwell tried to borrow celebrity from the bears and foxes whom he professed to love. And of course, Werner’s own self-assertion is implicit. His narration starts defining and interpreting Treadwell even before the subject appears on screen, and keeps on pointing out and underlining through the course of the film. The voiceover is bit hectoring, but makes clear that this film is a personal essay and does not attempt to be an “objective” documentary, despite the he-said-she-said, on-the-one-hand-and-the-other talking heads. Still, there is a richness of material that leaves the viewer to his or her own conclusions. (2005, Images, n.) *7+* (MC-86, RT-93.)