Grizzly Man DVD > Reviews > Prince Valiant

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Liked it
Story	Outstanding

Advantages:	Great story, told by a great film maker .
Disadvantages:	DVD itself is a bit threadbear .

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Timothy Treadwell was an idiot. He went mostly alone, and unarmed, into practically the most remote nature reserve on the planet and took a one-man stance against abuse of the grizzly bear. When these vicious carnivores got too close, he would talk them out of it with a sappy, childish voice.

Timothy Treadwell was ever so resourceful. The landscape involved is stunning through a camera but must be hellish in reality. However, he seems to have survived on whatever he took with him on the flying boat, or fished for, and never seemed to mind the inevitable mouthful of flies at every breath.

Timothy Treadwell was very lucky. Surely hardly anyone else has been so close to two huge male grizzly bears fighting over a female. Over a ton and a half of bear colliding, brawling, shouting each other down and wrestling, ever so close over a sandy patch of land.

Timothy Treadwell was pulled apart by a grizzly bear one day, just before his season was ending and he was due to be airlifted away. The silly voice must not have worked.

The ending of TT's life is only a small part of this excellent documentary, and is well reported (jn the trailer and anything else mentioning the film) and so is not a give-away at all. The story he leaves behind raises many questions, and with his own footage, filmed by himself and in the last few years by his girlfriend, provides for eye-catching viewing.

The sparse narration by director Werner Herzog is just enough. You might find his voice a little inapt at the start (and his pronunciation of peninsula is novel) but there's no faulting what little he says - asking questions himself at the end, and leaving many answers to us. He appears once, when the plot of the film brings him in contact with an ex of TT, who is in possession of an audio recording of his fatal mauling. Herzog suggests to her he be the last person to ever hear it, and that it be destroyed.

On one front Grizzly Man is chock full of interesting footage. Grizzlies fishing in swollen streams, and fighting over the catch, shot from the riverbank. But the motives behind the videoing really do raise many points the film introduces.

The bears live in a huge territory (Katmai National Park, Alaska) which is just right for them - except for Treadwell's presence, that is. Yes, there is a licenced and controlled hunting season, which thins out the population to a sustainable level, but which also allows their food to never run out. There is very little reason for Treadwell to think the bears are totally reliant on his one-man crusade against the National Parks Service - captured in full foul flow by his camera.

Some of the more amazing footage is of the local fox population - charming stuff of them running off with his baseball cap, and standing guard being stroked upon his tent - but they're only so accepting because they've haven't yet had the chance to come to fear man.

And with a lot of the recordings we get, Treadwell himself is Treadwell's star. Posing ridiculously, knee-deep in a lake for shots, endlessly retaking his speeches to camera, there must have been merit in his using his recordings of the bears in his free-of-charge schools roadshow, but the man is clearly in love with himself.

Or worse. As he says, "I'm like a fucken nut." It's hard for the amateur psychologist to work out just what was wrong with him, but he seems to be bipolar. One of the men involved in bringing the remains of Timothy back (in four bags) says something about the bears thinking him mentally retarded.

And when you hear him reel off the silly names he's given them all you'll know why.

Treadwell was gifted in the way he survived ten month-or-longer visits each summer to his favourite grizzly spots, and must have been on to something with the girly-girly voice he spoke to the grizzlies with. But just witness him mourning a bee - yes, a bee - and one that's not even dead - and you begin to wonder. Was he paranoid on behalf of the bears, against any poaching that might happen? Did he have a god complex? Did his girlfriend Amie really want to be along? - she doesn't want to be on film, it's clear.

Grizzly Man is great watching. Don't expect a full-on David Attenborough experience, although some of Treadwell's recordings are on a par in their own way with the cinematic footage Herzog has collected. The key word in the title is Man - and it's this one man that is clearly the subject. There are standard interviews with people involved with him and his life - and his bears - but Treadwell and his story only needs a very simple, plain telling, and it's what we get here.

Questions remain unanswered from the whole footage. How the heck does the coroner not blink like that for so long - and why? How many people think Treadwell is a real-life Prince Valiant? How, given his manic filming and refilming - and tantrums - did five years of recording only yield a hundred hours of tape? And ultimately, was it his own stupidity that kept him in grizzly territory too long, and killed, or was it a rogue bear, not susceptible to the connection TT formed with the species?

If you've seen Herzog films before you'll expect a slightly mystical approach, with not a lot in the way of cut-and-dried solution finding. This documentary is along the same lines, but is really so accessible and interesting you can only feel grateful that the director and the subject have been matched so appropriately.

The DVD the film was watched on is good, but could have been better. There are no subtitles - a rarity these days. The extras are the trailer, and a 53 minute, unchaptered documentary of the recording of the music. The score is fine, and very well-done, but doesn't seem to stand out enough to deserve such attention. But what the hey, if we're open to watching a documentary on DVD, let's have two for the price of one, and watching Richard Thompson and his colleagues improvise the music cues is worth the time. For some reason the music on the disc menu is incredibly loud, compared to all other contents.

The film is well worth four stars, and almost gets five. The disc is well worth three stars, and almost gets four, so just take it that it's recommended. The film is not its best on the small screen, but don't think you should hold out for a cinema revival. Grizzly Man captures a great character, in a great circumstance, in a great style. The disc isn't the only way to see that, but a purchase is worth considering.

For more details on Timothy Treadwell, enter him on wikipedia. For a great documentary narrative, watch Grizzly Man.