Grizzly Man

***Grizzly Man*** is an American documentary film by German director Werner Herzog, chronicling the life and death of bear enthusiast Timothy Treadwell. It was produced by Discovery Docs, the Discovery Channel's theatrical documentary unit, and Lions Gate Entertainment, and released in 2005.

On October 6, 2003, Treadwell and his then girlfriend Amie Huguenard were killed by a grizzly bear. Treadwell's footage was found after his death, and the bear that killed the couple was later encountered and killed by the group who retrieved the pair's partially consumed remains. An audio recording of the attack was captured on Treadwell's camera, but has never been released.

A companion series, *The Grizzly Man Diaries*, aired on Animal Planet in 2008.

## Synopsis

The film follows the life and death of bear enthusiast Timothy Treadwell, including some of his own footage which as shot before 2003. It also includes interviews people who know, or were involved with Treadwell, as well as professional dealing with wild bears.

Herzog used sequences shot from more than one hundred hours shot by Treadwell during the last five years of his life. He also conducted and filmed interviews with Treadwell's family and friends, and bear and nature experts. Park rangers and bear experts commented on statements and actions by Treadwell, such as his repeated claims that he was defending the bears from poachers. The rangers noted that, despite these claims, there had never been a recorded incident of poaching at Katmai National Park.

Another example is that Treadwell claimed he had "gained the trust" of certain bears, sufficient to approach and pet them. Park rangers pointed out that bears are wild and potentially dangerous animals; given that, Treadwell was lucky to have survived as long as he had without being mauled. One park ranger suggested that the bears were so confused by Treadwell's direct, casual contact that they were not sure how to react to him. Other rangers pointed out that the bears were not threatened by poachers, but were put at risk of harm and death by Treadwell's actions. By familiarizing them with human contact, he increased the likelihood that they would approach human habitation seeking food, and cause a confrontation in which they would be killed by humans.

In 2003, Treadwell and his girlfriend, Amie Huguenard, were camping in Katmai National Park. Treadwell usually left the park at the end of the summer, but that year stayed into early October. This put him and Huguenard at greater risk, as bears are aggressive during this period about searching for food to store up calories for hibernation during the winter. Herzog speculates that their staying later in the season is what ultimately resulted in the pair's deaths.

In addition to presenting views from friends and professionals, Herzog narrates and offers his own interpretations of events. He concluded that Treadwell had a sentimental view about nature, thinking he could tame the wild bears. He notes that nature is cold and harsh; Treadwell's views clouded his thinking and led him to underestimate the danger, resulting in his and Huguenard's deaths.

Treadwell's video camera captured the audio of the bear attack. Though Herzog refrained from making this a part of the film, he is shown listening to it, and is clearly disturbed. He advises Jewel Palovak, the owner of the tape and Treadwell's ex-girlfriend, to destroy it rather than listen to it herself.

The coroner gave Palovak Treadwell's wristwatch, which had been retrieved from his left arm, one of the few remains found. Willy Fulton, the pilot who discovered Treadwell and Huguenard's remains, had noted seeing the lone arm with the wristwatch and being unable to keep the image out of his mind.

## Release

*Grizzly Man* premiered on January 24, 2005 at the Sundance Film Festival, and later was given a limited theatrical release on August 12, 2005. It was later aired on the Discovery Channel on February 3, 2006, along with a thirty-minute companion special that delved deeper into Treadwell's relationship with the bears and addressed controversies related to the film.

The original theatrical release included an interview with Treadwell by David Letterman, in which the latter had joked that Treadwell would be eaten by a bear. The DVD release lacks this scene, though television airings retained it.

## Reception

### Box office

*Grizzly Man* opened in 29 North American venues on August 12, 2005. It grossed $US269,131 ($9,280 per screen) in its opening weekend, ranking No. 26 at the box office. It played at 105 theaters at its widest point, and made $US3,178,403 in North America during its run, with $882,902 overseas for a worldwide total of $4,061,305.

### Critical

*Grizzly Man* was met with critical acclaim. It has a 92% "Certified Fresh" score on Rotten Tomatoes based on 136 reviews, with an average of 8/10. The site's consensus states: "Whatever opinion you come to have of the obsessive Treadwell, Herzog has once again found a fascinating subject." Metacritic reports an 87 out of 100 rating based on 35 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".

David Denby of *The New Yorker* says:

Narrating in his extraordinary German-accented English, Herzog is fair-minded and properly respectful of Treadwell's manic self-invention. He even praises Treadwell as a good filmmaker: as Treadwell stands talking in the foreground of the frame, the bears play behind him or scoop up salmon in sparkling water; in other shots, a couple of foxes leap across the grass in the middle of a Treadwell monologue. The footage is full of stunning incidental beauties.

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times, a longtime support of Herzog's work, awarded the film four out of four stars:

'I will protect these bears with my last breath', Treadwell says. After he and Amie become the first and only people to be killed by bears in the park, the bear that is guilty is shot dead. Treadwell's watch, still ticking, is found on his severed arm. I have a certain admiration for his courage, recklessness, idealism, whatever you want to call it, but here is a man who managed to get himself and his girlfriend eaten, and you know what? He deserves Werner Herzog.

Charlie Russell, a naturalist who studied bears for many years, lived near them and raised them for a decade in Kamchatka, corresponded with Treadwell and wrote about the film:

Herzog is a skillful filmmaker so a large percentage of those who watch the movie *Grizzly Man* overlook Timothy's amazing way with animals even though to me this stands out very strongly. The fact that Timothy spent an incredible 35,000 hours, spanning 13 years, living with the bears in Katmai National Park, without any previous mishap, escapes people completely. Even with his city-kid background, I found myself mesmerized by what he could do with animals.

The film placed at No. 94 on *Slant Magazine*'s best 100 films of the 2000s.

In 2019, the film was placed No. 10 on *50 Documentaries to See Before You Die*.