Grizzly Man (2005)

To say that Grizzly Man is just like any other documentary would be a lie. I am still struggling to come to terms with what the director, Werner Herzog, actually thought would make it a success. To say that I hated it 100% of the time would also be a lie, but it's fair to say that I only enjoyed the scenes the director didn't film himself, which says quite a lot really. Timothy Treadwell, a bear enthusiast...and often mentally a bear at times, filmed a lot of mesmerising footage. It was fascinating to watch how close he managed to interact with such wild bears; it was risky, but it definitely caught my attention. If the documentary consisted of a voice over whilst we watched Treadwell’s footage, then I would have given it a higher rating. But sadly, I felt that it was ruined by the terrible acting of his 'close friends'. The interviews held by Herzog were rehearsed very obviously, which really destroys the authenticity of what was meant to be an emotive scene. There was an awkward silence as they finished when the cut should have been made sooner! I feel as if I'm in need of a stronger word for cringe-worthy! These were the moments I felt I was watching Herzog’s raw footage, no editing, just copied into a sequence. It felt rather amateurish at times. What is most frustrating is that Treadwell’s story is so captivating, I feel that Herzog did not do him any justice. This man put his life on the line to follow his passion for bears, something that no other human has ever really attempted, living in such close proximity to dangerous animals for months on end. Even the people who were native to the area said they let the bears go uninterrupted! However, his story does not seem to define Treadwell himself; his personality was definitely something else. There were moments where he seemed as if he was the most calm and kind-natured person in the world, to suddenly be replaced with an aggressive verbal explosion. Although I am blaming his isolation as the cause, it did slightly make my head hurt from utter exhaustion by the end of it, due to the fact that I honestly didn't know where I stood as an audience. Not something I really want to put myself through again.