Just Another Construct

            “Grizzly Man” is nothing more than a construct of Herzog. From over 100 hours of footage, Herzog carefully pick and chose which of those to show his audience. He set up interviews, which clearly appeared to be scripted, edited the footage however he desired, and made a film. It was a very selective process of what Herzog chose to show us. He created a contextual frame through which we saw Timothy Treadwell. We only saw what Herzog wished for us to see. He portrayed Treadwell as a troubled man, and the only view we had of him was that which Herzog intended to show to his audience. Knowing that this is a documentary, we were set up with a particular expectation. This film is a seeming actuality, but beneath the facts lie construction and fabrication. Herzog is a director. In order to be successful, he has to create films that will attract an audience. Rather than simply telling a story about a man who sought to save the grizzly bears, Herzog digs deep into Treadwell’s nature and portrays how troubled he truly is. We as an audience see Treadwell through the lens of the camera, a mediating view. In my opinion, this documentary is simply a construct of Herzog, just as the other works we have studied thus far in this course have been constructs of their respective authors. We will never know for sure the true intentions that lie behind these works, but they appear to be nothing more than an author or a director manipulating their audience to get a certain point across to them.