What a huge disappointment... I was hoping for a REAL animal lover with REAL research and information. This man is dillusional and self absorbed . Don't expect a serious grizzly bear documentary

More than a simple wildlife documentary (although it does contain some stunning wildlife footage), "Grizzly Man" is the multi-layered portrait of a complicated man: gentle, persevering, dedicated, naive, delusional, crazy. It's about obsession, about hubris, and ultimately about the voyeuristic nature of filming itself; it is certainly a rare experience to witness audiovisual footage of a man a few hours before his unexpected death, filmed by himself. Werner Herzog documents a story which speaks directly to him, and it shows. If I have one problem with the film, it's the coroner - he plays it a little too theatrical in front of the camera. *** out of 4.

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.

"Grizzly Man" is not at all your average documentary. This is largely due to the personality of not only the film's subject, but the film's director. Werner Herzog's narration is not only special because of his iconic voice, but also because of how uniquely it is written. Herzog is not afraid to voice his opinion and philosophize in his narration. The narrator is not just a narrator in this film, he is a character, which is something you don't normally see anywhere other than the documentaries of Werner Herzog.The film is also unique due to a fascinating subject, and an unexpected blend of tragedy and comedy. The tragic aspect comes from the sadness and mourning of Timothy Treadwell's friends and family after a grizzly bear attack that killed him and his girlfriend. The comic aspect comes from the footage Timothy Treadwell took of himself and various bears in previous years, in which he not only took some amazing wildlife footage, but proved to have a personality so weird and wacky that I couldn't help but laugh during many points throughout the film. The deaths of Treadwell and his girlfriend are tragic, but it is clear that he was somewhat delusional and seems almost crazy at times. While he spent years out in the wild, the disastrous outcome seems like it was bound to happen.Many people say that they could not sympathize with Timothy Treadwell at all during the film, but I did feel something for him. He wasn't at all a bad man, and his intentions were good, but he was highly flawed as well. He wanted to be a bear, but that just wasn't meant to be.