• Grizzly Man is an extraordinary documentary film that explores the life and death of bear obsessed Timothy Treadwell. Having spent every summer of the last 13 years of his life living amongst grizzly bears, Treadwell along with his girlfriend Amie Hugvenard was mauled to death by a rouge bear near to the end of their trip. Director Werner Herzog trawled through over 100 hours of footage that Treadwell had recorded of his bear experience during the last four years of his life, and met his family and close friends in order to understand as much as he could about Treadwell.

    The result of Herzog's research is a film that is occasionally amusing, but often a deeply tragic and disturbing portrayal of a man who's obsession with bears was an escape from his disconnection with society. Herzog's film shows not a man who was a wildlife film maker in the mould of David Attenbourgh, but a man who crossed a fine line in nature to the point where he believed he could live amongst bears as one of them. A man who seemed to genuinely believe there was a secret key to the bear world and that he had found it and could safely co-exist with them. Tragically he was wrong And yet while undoubtedly the documentary shows Treadwell to be a foolhardy obsessive perhaps close to mental illness, there is an innocence and earnestness about him that makes you fail not to like him. Herzog does his best to be non judgemental about Treadwell, getting mixed opinions about his life's work from friends and critics alike. We can see that while Herzog clearly does not agree with Treadwell's romantic view on nature being gentle and sweet, he nevertheless respects Treadwell's passion and convictions about his work, and ultimately concludes that his life and death had an important purpose, if not quite the purpose of the bear protector as Treadwell envisaged. Instead Treadwell left a legacy of a man no-one will ever be able to fully understand, a man who wanted bears to love him as much as he loved them, a man who sought love from nature that he could not get from the civilized world, and who can say he failed? The only problematical issue with this film is the absence of Treadwell's companion Hugvenard. Her family refused to appear in the documentary and she remained a silent and largely unseen companion on Treadwell's footage, as he liked to maintain the image that he lived alone with the bears. Without any material in order to explore Hugvenard, Herzog largely ignores her although in exploring the death of the two it is clear that Hugvenard was exceptionally brave, and loyal to Treadwell to the very end. Indeed the exploration of Treadwell and Hugvenard's death is one of the most profound pieces of film making I have ever seen. Having shown us Treadwell's love for the bears, it's hard to deal with the fact that he was killed by the creatures he so loved. Footage of Treadwell clutching his childhood teddy bear just days before his death moved me close to tears. We are fortunately spared the recorded sounds of Treadwell's death in the documentary, but we do see Werner Herzog listen to them on some headphones. His reaction to this and the way he speaks to a close friend of Treadwell who was entrusted with the tape of his death, is incredibly moving and disturbing.

    If ultimately Timothy Treadwell's life was not a triumph, then this documentary certainly is. It tells the story of a troubled but remarkable life that if he had lived we would never have of known about nor understood. Instead Treadwell would have remained to many a source of amusement, and his inner depths unknown to all but a few.