Life imitates art, they say, and there have been enough horror films based on the found-footage scenario--from The Blair Witch Project to Cloverfield--for the same scenario to work its way into the real world. But the footage recovered from the bodies of bear enthusiast Timothy Treadwell and girlfriend Amie Huguenard--which includes the sounds of their gory final moments--isn't horrific, but the basis of an affecting portrait of a troubled and gentle man's retreat into nature. For over five years, Timothy Treadwell toured amongst a group of grizzlies in the wilds of... an Alaskan national park, filming them closely with an eye for natural beauty. But director Werner Herzog--with typical humanism--ignores the nature to focus on Treadwell, re-cutting his frequent monologues to camera to show an increasingly paranoid fantasist who felt persecuted by the park authorities and had a neurotic habit of giving the bears cuddly human names. Treadwell withdraws into a citadel of self-inventions--recasting himself as an orphaned Australian, a Hollywood contender (second in line, it's claimed, to play Woody in Cheers) and a Byronic eco-warrior, projecting his new-age view of nature onto the Alaskan wilderness with tragic results for him and his girlfriend. But Herzog remains sympathetic to Treadwell, saluting him as a film-maker and reflecting on the sad and subconscious choices of men for whom society is unbearable. His essayistic film restores meaning and dignity to Treadwell and Huguenard's deaths. --Leo Batchelor [show more]
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Documentary from acclaimed director Werner Herzog which explores the life and death of amateur grizzly bear expert and wildlife preservationist Timothy Treadwell. Treadwell lived unarmed among the bears for 13 summers and filmed his adventures in the wild during his final five seasons. In October 2003, Treadwell's remains, along with those of his girlfriend, Amie Huguenard, were discovered near their campsite in Alaska's Katmai National Park and Reserve. They had been mauled and devoured by a grizzly, the first known victims of a bear attack in the park. Herzog plumbs not only the mystery of wild nature, but also the mystery of human nature as he chronicles Treadwell's final years in the wilderness. Herzog uses Treadwell's own startling documentary footage to paint a nuanced portrait of a complex and compelling figure while exploring larger questions about the uneasy relationship between man and nature.
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