Grizzly Man

Grizzly Man is one of those rare documentaries that not only is fascinating to watch, but captivates you enough to think and then gives you avenues to change your opinion about the man in the documentary. This is about Timothy Treadwell and his girlfriend who lived with bears for thirteen summers (yeah summers, not years) until he and she were tragically eaten by one.




What really makes this documentary unique was the fact that Timothy started filming himself with the bears in the last five years up to his death, so a good portion of the film is footage that he actually shot. You get to see moments that I would assume real documentary filmmakers would die for, in that wildlife enters the camera and he gets to touch them and just wild things that would be hard to put on film. You see him petting foxes and bears, to bears fighting, and even get to know Timothy as he talks to the camera about his frustrations with the human world and how much he loves and wants to protect the bear world.

His footage is intercut with interviews with people who was close and knew him. My favorite of those was when the airplane pilot was going through how he found Timothy's body, and giving beautiful descriptions that puts you at that moment. He's like a natural born storyteller. However, it did feel weird for me watching the other interviews, because I'm not sure if the director wanted more takes or what, but at times you could clearly see that those people were doing this for the camera and sometimes they would wait for the director to speak up, which I'm surprised they kept that in the film. Maybe the fact that these are their real thoughts are what makes it a bit awkward for me, or the fact that it almost feels rehearsed for the camera, but the highlight was definitely watching Timothy's footage.

There isn't much graphic images in this film. Timothy's death was not filmed on camera so you don't have to worry about seeing that, but you do see a picture of the bear that ate him all cut up with his guts hanging out so if you can't stand that type of stuff you should shut your eyes during that part. Other than that everything is pretty tame. There is one fight scene between two bears that wasn't too violent, but definitely violent. You see bears pooping, and Timothy likes to say "fuck" a lot when he's frustrated.

What I found really fascinating about this film though, is the fact that it's not black and white. It's not trying to portray Timothy in any light, it just shows who he naturally is, and then backs it up with peoples reactions to him that are both positive and negative, which leads the viewer able to decide for themselves if what Timothy was doing was truly a good act, or something that he over stepped in boundaries.

I think that this is one of the best documentaries I've ever watched, definitely in my top five. I believe that even if you're not into documentaries you'd still be captivated and fascinated by this. By no means is any part of this boring. Film fans and the general audience alike would enjoy this and be able to sit through the whole thing. Other than me feeling awkward during a few of the interviews, the only other negative I can give it was that it ran a little long, and it had the feeling of multiple endings. Every time I thought it would end, and I believed that to be a nice shot to end with, it would continue and give another good shot to end with only to continue with yet another good shot. To me this is a nearly flawless, rare, documentary that everyone could watch and debate about.