Product Description

In his mesmerizing new film, GRIZZLY MAN, acclaimed director Werner Herzog explores the life and death of amateur grizzly bear expert and wildlife preservationist Timothy Treadwell. Treadwell lived unarmed among the bears for thirteen 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 pa

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2830 in DVD
• Released on: 2005-12-26
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 104 minutes

Amazon.com
Grizzly Man could easily have been sensational and exploitative, but in the hands of Werner Herzog, it becomes something extraordinary. Herzog was granted exclusive access to over 100 hours of video shot by amateur naturalist, wildlife advocate and troubled loner Timothy Treadwell, who spent 13 summers in Alaska's Katmai National Park, where he grew to know and love the grizzly bears that lived there. He was also killed by one of them, in October 2003, along with his girlfriend Amie Huguenard, and that seemingly inevitable fate informs every minute of Herzog's riveting combination of Treadwell's video with his own expert filmmaking and unique vision of nature and man. Whereas Treadwell was a naïve nature-lover and social outcast whose sanity was slowly slipping away, Herzog is a pragmatic mythologist who views nature primarily in terms of "chaos, hostility, and murder," and the disparity of their vision results in a magnetic attraction that makes the sum of Grizzly Man greater than its parts. We come to admire the dreamer, the idealist, the failed actor and recovered alcoholic man-child that was Treadwell, and we equally admire the seeker of truth and wisdom that is Herzog. They belong together, in some world beyond our world, where visionaries join forces to create life after death. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews

Heartbreaking Tale of Treadwell's Demise
There are already so many reviews on here that it won't hurt my feelings if no one reads this one. I won't give a synopsis of the story since everyone already knows what it is about. But this is a fantastic documentary, the best I've ever seen - nature, biography or otherwise. Werner Herzog captures the essence of Tim Treadwell beautifully; I felt like I had lost a friend when it was over. It hurt. Whatever you think of Tim's deeds is beside the point. Herzog's artistry as a documentarian is in full bloom here; his portrait of Timothy and the bears is haunting, heartbreaking and absolutely riveting - at least it was for me.
On another note, the edition I ordered from Amazon is of excellent quality; I am very pleased with it. I saw this film in theatres three times when it first came out; it remains one of my favorite movies of all time.

Facinating!
This movie definitly has so torn reveiws but as for myself and for others to which I can convice, this moive was absolutly facinating and thought provoking. A indepth look at what most people never see, a person being..well himself and struggling with main stream socital views. I talk about this movie any chance I get.

A beautiful film (an odd individual); more a psychological study than a nature film
Unabashedly: I love H.D. Thoreau. He was a thinker, a poet; he was also a strange duck. Recently there have been Christopher McCandless--who walked headstrong, headlong, one-way into the Alaskan wild unprepared--and Timothy Treadwell--who returned year after year to a preserve of Alaskan bears to try to become a Grizzly Bear. They were just strange ducks. (My apologies to those who knew, and loved, these men.)

Some of Treadwell's footage is spectacular. (And the real film maker, Werner Herzog, has chosen and included the best.) Herzog was sympathetic to Treadwell--he cared for him; he interviews (and grieves with) others who cared for him.

Much of Treadwell's footage reveals--not nature--but his nature. He intrudes on the bears' space (to prove his superhuman bravery?); he fondles a pile of bear excrement (to prove his love for the bear?); he rants about the National Park Service; he cuddles at night with his stuffed toy bear: he prays to Jesus-child, ChristMan to send saving rain to the bears . .

In an interview with Treadwell's father, we learn Treadwell auditioned for a major part in the TV series "Cheers". He wasn't chosen; Woody Harrelson was. Treadwell, according to his father, never recovered from that trauma. Then, this psychological study, makes more sense. This Expedition 2000, Expedition 2001. . .these return trips to live among the Alaskan grizzlies become Treadwell's show--footage of grizzly bears starring Timothy Treadwell; footage of Alaskan wilderness starring Timothy Treadwell. Clearly Treadwell is moved by the magnificance of Alaska and of the grizzlies. But his film project ultimately is more about him: his bravery, his sense of ecological justice, his sentimental view of nature, his attempt to become the superhero: Grizzly Man.

StrangeDuck.