Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

Beautiful, moving film.

The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Grizzly Man is another film from the German director Werner Herzog which focuses on a man who hovers over the line where visionary meets madness. In this instance it is the character Timothy Treadwell who fits the role. This was a guy who between 1990 and 2003 spent each summer in Katmai National Park in Alaska in the land of the grizzly bears. He had an uncanny affinity with these creatures but had no official training on them. He is perhaps most famous for getting up and close to them in ways that no one previously had ever attempted. This extraordinary behaviour was captured on film by Treadwell; he in fact filmed over 100 hours of often fantastic footage. His videos also served as something of a confessional, as he often addressed the camera straight on and voiced his opinions on many issues which affected him, many highly personal. So this endeavour functioned partially as an attempt to define himself. But the truth is that Treadwell was a very unhinged man in many ways. At the end of the day, in spite of his achievements, his reckless actions resulted in the violent death of both himself and his girlfriend Amie Huguenard in 2003, when they were killed by a bear that clearly saw them only as meat and not as friends. Herzog reveals this fact very early on in proceedings and this allows viewers to have this in mind as we watch Treadwell in his mission.This is another of those documentaries that reveals truths so strange it is surprising that they are facts at all. Herzog is both sympathetic and critical of Treadwell, admiring his individuality and unique vision but condemning his recklessness and idealistic view of nature. While Treadwell styles himself as the protector of the bears, it's never made at all clear what he is protecting them from and what it is he is precisely doing to protect them in the first place. The actual irony is that his 'protection' led to the death of the bear which killed him, an animal which would not had died if he had never interacted with it. His concept of protection was more an idea than an action. He is certainly a very self-indulgent protagonist but ultimately he interacted with grizzlies like no one else ever has and his story is absolutely fascinating. Like many other Herzog films this one boils down to man vs. wilderness, a story about a kind of human madness suffered by someone on the outer fringe of society. On the one hand this is a film about beautiful and deadly nature; while on the other it's a very human story about a man who actively did something extraordinary, if somewhat insane. But it's also about a man who wanted to create an illusion, a man with many insecurities who found meaning in something completely unexpected. Timothy Treadwell's story is one full of contradictions – it has tragedy, stupidity and narcissism but it also has beauty, wonder and inspiring qualities. It's very much a documentary of considerable merit.

I must say that I had never heard of this guy until three days ago. Well, I'm Brazilian and Timothy Treadwell is completely unknown in my country (although I believe he must be famous in the United States). Then as I heard of him? To summarize: the internet. I was on youtube watching a video of the naturalist Casey Anderson playing with a brown bear named Bella. So I was reading the page comments, and I saw someone to comment in irony tone: "Don't be another Timothy Treadwell." This immediately aroused my curiosity. Who is this guy? When searching on Google, I found the biography of this man, a supposed passionate naturalist by bears in Alaska, who died tragically eaten by a bear in 2003, along with his girlfriend. Only this information impressed me, and when I found out they had made a documentary about his life and his filming, of course I wanted to watch the film. Well, after finishing seeing "The Grizzly Man" last night, I leave here my main impressions:I can understand the love of Timothy by nature and by the bears, because I also love nature, I also love bears - they are really impressive, beautiful and majestic creatures. But one thing is you love and admire something, another thing is you dangerously invade the wild space, ignoring the natural laws, and ignoring the true nature of bears and their true human nature. Although he recorded impressive scenes, such as the grand struggle of male bears by a female, which show to us the immense power of these animals, Timothy's recklessness and narcissism are evident. Philosophically speaking, I disagree with Timothy and with the Herzog director's view of what is Nature. I don't see nature with the naive and childish view that everything is harmony, peace and beauty, but I don't have this depressing view that everything is pure chaos and sheer destruction. I think the nature is a mixed and combination of both. Yes, I see moments of destruction, cruelty and suffering in it, but I also see moments of beauty, joy and harmony. I think the question is have the wisdom to know, to study and to understand the beautiful and the ugly at the same time.For me, the documentary worked as an unintended comedy. There are sad moments, as the moment when Herzog heard the tape recording when Timothy and his girlfriend were attacked, but most of the time, I found myself crying laughing. The part where Timothy is in ecstasy for see a bear poop is hilarious. The part where a interviewed criticizes him without mercy saying that the bears think him like a mentally retarded also made me laugh. Undoubtedly, Timothy Treadwell was a very bizarre dude, but their relatives and friends are also unintentionally comic figures. I mean, the mother and father, his ex-girlfriend, the "platonic" friend, and the mustache guy in the helicopter who found his remains are creatures as eccentric as Timothy. The only person who seemed more normal next him was Amie, after all, she was afraid of bears and not approached them so dangerously. Unfortunately she hardly appears and remains unknown to us. In fact, this film is not about bears, but about a bizarre dude called Timothy Treadwell.

You may read reviews and news stories that refer to the subject matter of this film as an in-depth study of a passionate environmentalist's quest to protect the ursine denizens of an Alaskan grizzly habitat.I'm here to tell you that this is a flick about a crazy dude that gets eaten by a bear.Others may say that the subject of the film, Timothy Treadwell, while a tad eccentric and misguided, gave his life in a dramatic attempt to teach the world how misunderstood the grizzly is; that his child- like fascination with the grizzly bear, in addition to various other wildlife in Alaska's Katmai National Preserve, was both beautiful and admirable. I've read many reviews in the last hour maintaining that Treadwell spent the final thirteen years of his life trying to send a message of compassion for wildlife everywhere and the sanctity of the land on which they live.I'm saying that the only message I took away from this guy was: Grizzly Bears Eat People! Don't Invade Their Space and Poke Them and Stuff, or They Will Kill You and Your Girlfriend!As for Treadwell's message, it's garbled at best. Personally, I always thought that grizzly bears might eat me. Turns out I was right, so I'm not sure I see how I've ever misunderstood the nature of the grizzly.If you've been wanting to see this film, or want to see it now that you've heard that an environmentalist gets eaten by a bear, please don't avoid it because you think I've spoiled the ending or didn't like it. They tell you about Treadwell's demise at the beginning, and I really did enjoy the story. Herzog's editorial asides undermined the documentary feel of the film for me, but who am I to argue with a guy that dragged a steamboat over a mountain?Spoilers below...What gets me about this Treadwell guy is that the film, for whatever reason, never really talks about how delusional he is. College dropout, failed actor, former drug addict. That's apparently what qualifies him to be a wildlife expert. He goes out into the woods every summer and hangs out with bears and foxes, then he talks to them in this Mister Rogers, sing-song voice, and pretends that they're his friends. To his credit, the foxes actually seem to dig it, but at no point in 100 minutes of film does any bear in his vicinity appear to view him in a welcoming manner. They don't let him touch them, all but the cubs keep their distance, and many of them seem pretty annoyed.If there had been a thought balloon above the head of any bear in "Grizzly Man" I imagine it would have said, "The minute we run out of fish, I'm eating the weirdo with the camera."My point is that Timothy Treadwell had issues. Viewing him as an authority on grizzly bears and wildlife conservation, as many people apparently did and was never discounted in the film, is like seeing Hugh Laurie as an authority on diagnostic medicine. Timothy Treadwell was a figment of his own imagination; a character in an elaborate, self-obsessed fantasy. I think "Grizzly Man" takes him entirely too seriously as an activist.Treadwell goes on at length in the film about how he sees himself as the protector of the Katmai grizzly, and that it's a role he takes very seriously. "I would die for these animals," he states with a show of emotional conviction.Yet during the only segment in the film where one of his grizzly friends is being harmed by humans, Treadwell hides in the bushes and sounds on the verge of tears, unwilling to reveal himself. These guys, whom Treadwell refers to as poachers, were standing around a boat taking pictures and throwing rocks at a nearby grizzly. Treadwell does nothing. It appeared to me that while he was horrified at the way the bear was being mistreated, he was more threatened by the intrusion of other humans into his fantasy world, and was too frightened to do anything about either.It's a sad story. Yes, partly because this kind-hearted guy and his girlfriend get gobbled up by a bear. But also because Treadwell really seemed to need help. A handful of "dear friends" were interviewed for the documentary, and I'm left wondering if these people had pointed out that he was acting like a wackjob, he may have avoided spending his final moments as a 6-foot chew toy.Tim Treadwell really seemed like a sweet guy with a caring circle of friends. It just seems to me that he deserved better in their hands...Good flick. Check it out.

The documentary is well made, but I must say that I have mixed feelings about it.Even though that I am glad that I learned about Timothy Treadwell, I feel like he wouldn't have wanted it this way. Much of his video footage shown in the movie felt extremely personal and I am quite sure that he never meant it to be published. To me it felt like an invasion of his most private life. It felt disrespectful. And if you say that documentaries are meant to be this way, I disagree. It is legitimate to make a movie about an important person, but not to expose him completely.But of course, this only my opinion.Because of the reason mentioned above, I don't recommend this documentary.