A Documentary?

“Grizzly Man”, directed by Werner Herzog, is supposed to be an unbiased story of Timothy Treadwell living in Katmai National Park trying to save the grizzly bears. Yet, through the film’s gruesome “acting” and uncomfortable collections of obviously staged scenes, this “documentary” felt more like Herzog trying to insert his opinion in the account rather than reporting the truth of the Treadwell story. For example, the coroner who explains how Treadwell and his girlfriend died is trying to make the descriptions more dramatic and is awkwardly looking at the camera after his spiel is over. This is obvious acting, rather than saying the actual truth. When Herzog interviews Treadwell’s parents, they seem to be cold and distant. The mother grabs Timothy’s bear, which seems to unpleasantly push the subject of the grizzlies. For some reason, the father is made to look odd because he keeps his sunglasses on in the house and shows no emotion to his son’s death.  

            In addition to these weird interviews, Herzog himself inserts his opinion throughout the documentary, which makes the documentary quite biased. In one scene, Herzog states that Timothy would feel a certain way, and how he disagreed with Timothy’s thought. This puts words into Timothy’s mouth, and we cannot take this explanation as the definite truth. As the viewers, we have to take Herzog’s opinion with a grain of salt. How would he know what Timothy was thinking at that time? This documentary is more like a feature film because it breaks the rules of being an unbiased documentary, and inserts bias to increase the entertainment factor.

Crazy Man

I found Grizzly man to be utterly disturbing. Timmy Treadwell struck me as childish and naive. Truthfully, I would have expected the behaviors exhibited by Treadwell from one of my young cousins who don’t know any better; they are fascinated by big scary animals, because they don’t know that they shouldn’t. This was exactly how Timothy Treadwell came across. It seemed almost as though he was insane. He very flippantly gave up his otherwise normal life to go out into the Alaskan backcountry to tend to grizzly bears that were already in a federally protected national park. Why?

Moreover, Tim had a name for every animal regardless of the fact that, well, they all look alike and are prone to comingling. So, how does Treadwell keep track of all the animals? My guess is that he did it not so much to keep track of the bears, but rather to justify his “intimate” relationships with them, despite the glaring fact that there were none. He made himself feel as though he was accepted by the bears, even though he wasn’t. In all honesty, I would venture to say that one of the reasons he lasted so long in the wild, among the bears, is because he appeared to be more trouble than he was worth. The bears were not interested in him. He did not get in their way and, for the most part, their lives were not terrible inconvenienced. They did not see him as a threat so they just didn’t mess with him. A similar line of thinking is that we are not inconvenienced by the existence of the deer on the Hamilton Campus; they don’t pose a threat to us and they don’t interfere with our lives. So, we let them live on and don’t pay them much attention. I by no means am attempting to justify his actions. I sill think Treadwell was absolutely crazy!

Director's Manipulation

After watching the short clip from the documentary, I went into it with an idea of how I thought I would react to the documentary. I thought Timothy Treadwell came across as very confident, to the point of being cocky, but very passionate about the bears. There was one part of the NPR interview that resonated with me, and it was when Herzog said that he disagrees with Treadwell's approach to protecting the bears. He explains how Treadwell gets up close and personal with the bears and talks about and to the bears in somewhat of a "baby" voice. I agree with Herzog that you should love the bears by treating them with respect and keeping your distance, almost the opposite of what Treadwell does. I do think that Treadwell is genuine in his feelings about the bears.

The NPR interview also made me question the accuracy of the documentary, especially when Herzog says he doesn't make a distinction between documentaries and feature films. Therefore, I'm going into the movie with the idea that aspects of this film have been manipulated to lead us to see Treadwell's story a certain way. Although documentaries are often considered factual and unbiased, I think ones like "Grizzly Man", in which an individual's story is being told, are subjective and manipulated to the director's liking. It makes perfect sense, but it is something I have never really considered because I trusted that the director would not manipulate the story, and make the documentary as objective as possible. I'm sure many directors do maintain that validity, but I have my hesitations about "Grizzly Man".

Grizzly Man and the bear "problem" in New Jersey

            I’ll be honest, right after I watched the short video snippet that we were assigned to watch, I was very unsure of how I could formulate a blog post. I decided to do a bit of Google and Wikipedia searching to learn a little bit more. I found out that there is quite a bit of controversy surrounding Timothy Treadwell, and the documentary that Werner Herzog created about him. Whenever a filmmaker decides to try to capture someone’s life through film, there will inevitably be some bias. I feel almost prepared to be manipulated by Herzog in Grizzly Man, especially due to the influence that Treadwell’s friend had on the film’s creation. It then came to me that there is a vaguely similar situation regarding manipulation and wildlife in my home state of New Jersey.

            Although not quite the wilds of Alaska, New Jersey has a thriving black bear population. I have had the pleasure of encountering these beautiful and peaceful creatures several times on the woodlands trails of northern New Jersey, so naturally I was interested when I heard that there was a bear hunt controversy going on so close to home. I found out that the anti-hunt and pro-hunt groups are engaged in a bitter war full of deception and manipulation. Some people even claim that the pro-hunt faction has transported bears from their natural habitat to the suburbs, in order to spread fear and gain support for the hunt. My personal views on the hunt are probably evident in my writing, so I guess I am manipulating anyone who reads this…           

How much of the truth is true?

            A documentary is a nonfiction work that aims to document some aspect of reality, or so we have been taught to believe. But we must take into account the point of view of the director. He must be biased toward one particular side of the story he is telling. Thus far this semester we have been told that we are puppets being manipulated by the author. The line between reality and illusion is often blurred. Why should a documentary be any different? By categorizing his film as a documentary, Herzog is telling his audience that the events he has recorded are factual. Yet in his interview he shares that there is indeed a blurred line because he invents. He looks for a deeper truth, which very well may not be the truth at all. As was the case in the two novels we just read, this documentary is nothing more than a construct of the author. Are parts factual? Certainly. But we as an audience are unaware of how much of this documentary has been distorted because of the author’s bias. Has Herzog carefully directed and produced this film in such a way so that he gets across a particular story to his audience? I wouldn’t be surprised. It will certainly contain parts from actual events, but the line between fact and fiction will be blurred, so it will be impossible to distinguish for sure what is truth and what is simply the director’s imagination at work. 

Biased By Nature

The story of Timothy Treadwell is extremely intriguing. For thirteen summers, he lived in the Alaskan wilderness, befriending and living amongst grizzly bears but also trying to protect them from harm. Upon first glance, I thought that Treadwell portrayed himself through his footage in a similar way to Australian wildlife expert Steve Irwin. In the first video, Treadwell positions himself just close enough to the bear that the viewer might feel uncomfortable, but at the same time fascinated by this man who has dedicated his life to living amongst and "protecting" these threatened animals. However, upon closer inspection of other videos, questions may arise regarding the mental state of this man. For example, in the clip where he watches the bear capturing fish, he starts to speak to the bear as if it can hear and understand him, which leads me to question his mental state. After listening to the NPR interview with Werner Herzog and watching the clips of Treadwell, the story seemed like the golden opportunity for manipulation and twist to make a good Hollywood film. In other words, I can easily see how Timothy's story could be twisted into a biased character study from the nature of his story and the hints I have picked up on in class.

Who is Grizzly Man?

            After listening to the NPR interview and his short clip, I find it difficult to sympathize, or even relate to Timothy Treadwell and his devotion to grizzly bears.  Werner Herzog presents Treadwell to have brought his death onto himself.  Instead of focusing on the good that Treadwell did for the grizzly bears, the listener is focused on how his “demons” lead him to drugs and alcohol.  The question I kept wondering was how Treadwell came to his concern for grizzly bears and what about them lead him to find sobriety.  The entire situation is one I find difficult to relate to, as well as Herzog makes no effort to promote his work, instead he harps on how Treadwell blurred the relationship and danger between man and nature.

Just Another Puppet Master

Seeing that we are in a literature class, it may seem surprising to some that we are watching a supposed "documentary". This film is, in fact, classified as  documentary on many of the websites with information on the film, including Wikipedia and even rogerebert.com. However, if you listen to the NPR interview with director Werner Herzog, the classification of "documentary" is rather deceiving.

Here's the fact about the film. It is based on some ninety hours of footage Timothy Treadwell shot during his 13 or so years living amongst grizzly bears in Alaska. I can imagine that this alone leads people to believe that this film is entirely factual. Herzog, however, makes it clear in his interview with NPR that this is not necessarily the case. Interestingly, he refers to Treadwell as a character that found him as a director. Furthermore, Herzog even admits at one point that the film enables Treadwell to become the star of Herzog's "best feature film".

All of these small details should clue us into something we have dealt with before in the class: this piece is a construct. The Timothy we observe is not a man that stands alone in this film but rather is a character born out of the mind of Herzog. The fact that Herzog had to choose only 103 minutes out of 90 hours of footage should serve as a warning to us that he chose this footage carefully and intentionally. He is crafting his film through the selected footage and music in order to construct us, his audience, to become the viewers he wants us to become. It is very possible and I argue very likely that the film is in fact a playing out of Herzog's argument against Treadwell's idealized, harmonious view of nature that Herzog touched upon during his NPR interview. Therefore, knowing that we are once again subjected to the motif of authorial control, I urge everyone to watch the film in order to understand how Herzog effectively--or not so effectively--pulls the strings and manipulates this story to persuade us to support his view.

Blurred Lines

If I had not read some of my classmates blog's about Werner Herzog's NPR speech and the short video on Timothy Treadwell, I would have never assumed Herzog's documentary "Grizzly Man" is biased.

After thinking harder, I remember it being mentioned in class to pay attention to the bias throughout the film, but when watching the short clip and listening to the NPR interview, I was unable to pick up on the biases surrounding Herzog's opinion. Herzog explains Timothy Treadwell was "haunted by demons" in the form of alcohol and drugs, and that he had near fatal overdose. He dove further into Treadwell's story by suggesting meeting the bears was an epiphany, in the form of a new beginning for Treadwell. Treadwell does state his opinion briefly when asked if Treadwell was suicidal, and also by saying that we should not love the bear but instead respect them and keep our distance.

The point I am trying to make is that it is often hard to pin point a clear line or divide between what is factual and what is not, even in something as renown and trusted as an NPR segment. The concept of a blurred line between fact and fiction is something we are all rather practiced in, or at least aware of. Herzog himself points this out. He considers there to be a blurred line between documentaries and feature films. In fact for Herzog, he is on a quest to find the "ecstatic truth" in each of the films he produces. We plan to watch the "Grizzly Man" as a documentary however to Herzog it is  "feature film." I am very interested to see how the contrasting lenses play out!

Tweaking the truth

After watching Timothy Treadwell’s first personal video where he describes his wilderness mission, I perceived him as someone who cared about the grizzly bears. However, as I watched the rest of his videos and researched about him, it changed my perception of him. He was a struggling artist and an alcoholic before he got his fame through fighting for Grizzly bears. In the video, Treadwell seemed peculiar when he tries to teach Downey the bear how to catch a fish, when Downey is clearly not responding. However, Werner Herzog says Treadwell’s odd behaviors were due to his solitude and not due to any sort of craziness. He also states that the grizzly bears saved Treadwell from his dark days and therefore, he was even more passionate about the cause. This altered my perception to believe that Treadwell is not abnormal and is just concerned about the bears.  Herzog recreates Treadwell through his movie, making me question the credits of this film being a “documentary.” Like O’Brien, Herzog is tweaking the truth to attract an audience. O’Brien says that no one would read his novel if he wrote about how he played golf instead of crossing the bridge to Canada. In the same way, Herzog creates a movie about a man who lived with the bears rather than a man who wants to become famous.