Another Documentary I Haven't Seen
This will be my week for commenting on movies and books I haven't actually seen or read. Today's topic: "Grizzly Man."
The documentary, by Wernor Herzog, explores the life of Timothy Treadwell, an eccentric jackass who thought he could live among the grizzlies in Alaska. Eventually, inevitably, he (and his girlfriend) got eaten by a bear.
There is, apparently, some concern that seeing the documentary will cause people to copycat Timothy Treadwell. Bear experts wish that Herzog had put more focus on the dangers of living with grizzlies.
And yet, by all accounts, there's a good five-or-six-minute sequence in the film in which the doctor who performed the autopsy on Timmy's mangled body explains in some detail precisely what happened. Plus, as luck would have it, Timmy (who had filmed over 100 hours of himself playing with the cuddly beasts) had his camera on during the attack that killed him. Being unprepared for the end, he'd left the lens cap on the camera, but the sound survived. So in conjunction with the storytelling doctor, you hear the attack in all its gory glory.
Anyone who wants to copycat Timothy Treadwell after hearing him (and let's not forget his girlfriend) get mauled to death... well, survival of the fittest, baby. And the fittest don't go to Alaska to hang out with bears.
That's two current documentaries featuring the power of Darwinism, neither of which I've seen, but both of which I plan to.
Labels: movies
posted by Dan G @ 8:56 AM
6 Comments
6 Comments:
There's also a feature being made starring Leonardo DiCaprio as the bear bait. I'm sure they won't show his pretty little puss getting mauled. (I read the big piece about this guy in Rolling Stone a year ago. The troopers who found the scene said that the tape is the most horrible thing they've ever heard.)
Yeah, we certainly need to stop working so hard to protect the stupid people. They deserve what they get.
Grizzly Man does NOT contain the tape of the actual mauling.
Yes, we learn about what is on the tape from the coroner's detailed recollection. We also witness a brief, powerful scene in which Werner Herzog (the director) puts on headphones and listens to the first few moments of the tape.
The camera holds on Jewel, the tape's owner, who has never listened to it. Jewel is one of the film's co-executive producers -- and she is Treadwell's ex-girlfriend and former employee.
Very soon after starting to listen to the tape, of which the audience cannot hear anything, Herzog asks Jewel to turn it off, and he urges Jewel to destroy the tape.
Unfortunately, many documentarians somehow feel that they have the right to cross a line in their depictions of subjects who crossed a line.
Kevin MacDonald's otherwise interesting documentary about the '72 Munich Olympics included gruesome photos of the bodies of the Israeli athletes who died violently at the airport during a failed ambush. In these photos, we can recognize some of the individual athletes quite clearly. Why do we have to see the burnt corpse of fencer Andre Spitzer to understand these events?
Sam Green and Bill Spiegel, in their more recent and otherwise excellent film about the Weather Underground, inexplicably chose to show full-on crime scene photos of some of the Manson family victims lying dead in their own blood. Yeah, man, those were violent times -- but we gleaned that well before viewing the body of a murdered pregnant woman sprawled in front of a sofa.
Herzog wisely chose not to impose the horror of the mauling tape on the audience.
What Herzog does share with us is well worth experiencing, from the gorgeous footage of the animals and the landscape to the musings, antics and occasional ravings of Treadwell himself; from the interviews with scientists, locals, Treadwell's parents and some of the people who cleaned up the mauled body parts, to Herzog's own blunt narration.
Sar far, I've been eaten by a polar bear, a shark, a mountain lion, and this one time, my corpse was dug up by a komodo dragon and carried around a small village. I've also been attacked by squirrels.
I am here now to tell you that far and away, the squirrels were the worst.
Sar far, I've been eaten by a polar bear, a shark, a mountain lion, and this one time, my corpse was dug up by a komodo dragon and carried around a small village. I've also been attacked by squirrels.
I am here now to tell you that far and away, the squirrels were the worst.
blondandeffective, if that is in fact your name, you are indeed effective. I will assume you are also blond.
I think I don't need to hear the audio.
anonymous, if that is in fact your name, I was surprised to hear that ken has had identical experiences and opinions.
Post a Comment
<< Home