IN AGUIRRE, WRATH OF GOD AND FITZCARRALDO, WERNER HERZOG CREATED MEMORABLE OBSESSIVES UNBOWED BY THE CHALLENGES OF NATURE. THIS MESMERISING DOCUMENTARY OFFERS A REAL-LIFE PORTRAIT TO STAND ALONGSIDE THEM, IN THE STORY OF IDEALISTIC ENVIRONMENTALIST TIMOTHY TREADWELL, WHO FOUND TO HIS COST THAT LIVING AMONG GRIZZLY BEARS WAS NO PICNIC.
Access to Treadwell’s video archive allows Herzog to trace the story of a failed actor with substance abuse issues, who reinvented himself as the protector of the bears in an Alaskan national park, spending summers alone in the landscape with his camera, seemingly certain in his belief that he was forming a mutual bond with the animals. Unfortunately, the hungry grizzly that eventually polished him off for breakfast didn’t quite see it that way. The wildlife shots of the bears in their natural habitat are frankly amazing, but we eventually realise they were captured by someone mad enough to believe he could cross the proper boundaries between man and savage beast. —Trevor Johnston.