One of the things I love about Werner Hertzog's documentaries, besides his voice, is the brutally unromantic lens through which he views life. In Hertzog's world there are no heroes, no villains, and no fools; there are just people. Nature is majestic, brutal, merciless, and mercurial.
Grizzly Man examines the life and death of Timothy Treadwell, a self proclaimed protector of the grizzly bears. Treadwell spent 13 summers living in close contact with the bears. Shortly before decamping from the last summer, Treadwell and a companion were eaten by one of the grizzlies. He was clearly insane in the nobel manner of fools.
In the hands of most documentarians, Treadwell would be portrayed as either a nobel fool, a hero, a lunatic, or a menace. In Hertzog's hands, though he is all of these and none of them. Hertzog doesn't allows both Treadwell's champions and Treadwell's detractors to have a voice. There is no comment on whether Treadwell's actions were beneficial or harmful to the bears. Hertzog's world view doesn't accept that the actions of a single man can have a bearing on the bears; they will be as they will be.
His focus is on examining Treadwell's soul. What made the man tick. Ultimately, Hertzog portrays Treadwell as a lost boy. He is a man who was never solidly grounded in the human world. The bears speak to him and over the course of his years with them, Treadwell crosses a line beyond which he can never really exist in the human world. Neither can he live in the bear's world.
The film uses much of Treadwell's own film. It is stunning footage. Interspersed with Treadwell's film are interviews in which Hertzog draws out his subjects. Some of the interviews are painfully raw.
