overlap

Last night I made what is for me a rare trip to the big screen to see Werner Herzog's Grizzly Man - in summary this is an after the fact product of the editing suite, based on over a hundred hours of footage filmed in Alaskan bear habitat by Timothy Treadwell. The aspect that really makes it "a story" rather than another wildlife documentary is the fact that Treadwell was a lone operator doing this for no reason other than that he'd dedicated his life to the bear cause. Well, that and the fact he ended up getting himself killed and eaten by a bear... Some of the footage is quite outstanding - for example, there's two bears fighting, filmed from what is nothing like a safe distance, and then there's Treadwell himself doing an awful lot of pieces to camera which range from the engaging enthusiast to the rampant obsessive. In between the anthropomorphic whimsy there's a measured commentary from interviews with people who knew the guy, and Herzog himself commenting on the thorough film-making skills that enabled him to do so much with the footage. It's a troubling mixture of the wow factor at the sort of footage you just don't get out of orthodox film-makers, and the unhealthy closeness of Treadwell to the bears, though of course that's what makes the film. If you find yourself bored of Hollywood explosions, car chases and CGI effects, this is about as real as it gets - it's well worth the effort of tracking it down!