Grizzly Man
  
Werner Herzog has used for this magnificent documentary some of the some of the hundreds of hours of footage that Timothy Treadwell shot of himself with grizzly bears in their natural habitat. Starting in 1990, Treadwell spent as much time as he could each year camping out with the bears in Alaska.
Treadwell, an ex-alcoholic who had hit rock bottom in his personal life, loved bears and no doubt enjoyed the uncomplicated life that they experience and was very often just a few feet from them when he was obtaining his footage. This all failed him in 2003 when both himself and his girlfriend were brutally slain in a Bear attack. This film is a look at Treadwell’s life and death, while also including interviews with the people who knew him and leading animal experts
 
While this film is set in one of the most beautiful places on earth, the Alaskan peninsula, what is depicted is actually a peek into a very dark and disturbed man’s soul. There are some scenes that will leave to in total amazement and within the space of a few minutes, a few scenes later; you will be feeling depressed and bewildered. This film will take you on a complete rollercoaster of emotions and is never anything less than entertaining. The character of Timothy Treadwell is one that will stay with you for a long time after the credits have rolled.
 
Treadwell is captured playing with foxes and bears in their natural habitat and the sights are breathtaking. Werner Herzog unfolds a tale of a personal journey and the fight to protect the bears from society and poachers and the increasing danger that was closing in on Treadwell.
 
Emotional and captivating, this is an extraordinary film that holds up the complexities of our modern human condition against the simplicity and glory of a breathtaking natural backdrop and Herzog does a wonderful job of detailing the story of Treadwell and in explaining how he was nearly banned from staying with the bears by the park rangers for continually getting too close to the bears and for using food containers that were not bear-resistant.
 
Treadwell believed that he was doing the right thing and we are left without a doubt that he had an emotional need for the bears to need him, but in the film we sadly know of only one bear that ever benefited from his presence and that was by Treadwell's death. Ultimately I personally felt that Treadwell was fulfilling his own personal and selfish needs with the bears and that he needed to be a crusader for their cause whether they had one or not. You may be left with a different judgement, go see this film for yourself and let the discussions begin.
 
 
Paul Elliott