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Grizzly Man
Lions Gate Films Inc.


6.8

based on 35 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 84 votes
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FILM:

MPAA RATING: R for language

Starring Franc G. Fallico, Amie Huguenard, and Timothy Treadwell

In his mesmerizing new film, acclaimed director Werner Herzog explores the life and death of amateur grizzly bear expert and wildlife preservationist Timothy Treadwell. (Lions Gate Films)

GENRE(S):	Documentary
WRITTEN BY:	Werner Herzog
DIRECTED BY:	Werner Herzog
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: December 27, 2005 Theatrical: August 12, 2005
RUNNING TIME:	103 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize, 2005 Sundance Film Festival

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Brilliant, poetic, and utterly unique.

100

Premiere Glenn Kenny

Herzog not only tells an incredible story but implies a dark metaphysic of the natural world that makes this film unsettlingly larger than its human subject.

100

The New Yorker David Denby

A brilliant documentary about an American saint and fool--a man who understands everything about nature except death.

100

Variety Scott Foundas

A brilliant portrait of adventure, activism, obsession and potential madness that ranks among helmer Werner Herzog's strongest work.

100

Washington Post Desson Thomson

A small masterpiece of a documentary that takes us into the heart of a complex darkness.

100

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

Mr. Herzog is also no ordinary filmmaker. It is the rare documentary like Grizzly Man, which has beauty and passion often lacking in any type of film, that makes you want to grab its maker and head off to the nearest bar to discuss man's domination of nature and how Disney's cute critters reflect our profound alienation from the natural order.

100

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

The documentary is an uncommon meeting between Treadwell's loony idealism, and Herzog's bleak worldview.

100

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

It's Treadwell's contradictions and controversies that fascinate Herzog the filmmaker, inspiring him to create this enthralling documentary portrait, his best film in years.

100

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

Werner Herzog's magnificent tragedy, Grizzly Man, a Shakespearean character study that packs the sheer terror of "The Blair Witch Project."

100

Empire Dan Jolin

A complex, unique and engrossing journey into the murky recesses of an unhinged mind. It really needs to be seen to be believed.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

A mesmerizing work of disturbing power and unease.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Shows and tells an astonishing story, a disturbing and provocative tale of obsession, bravado and self-invention that leaves you open-mouthed for all kinds of reasons.

Village Voice Michael Atkinson

For many the question remains about how Treadwell's eventual death should be regarded--as a tragedy, as a fool's fate, or as comeuppance for daring to humanize wild predators and habituating them to human presence. Herzog's perspective is, of course, scrupulously nonjudgmental.

Wall Street Journal Jim Fusilli

Mr. Herzog's perspective is an invaluable balance to Mr. Treadwell's as the animal advocate approaches what seems like madness.

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

A truly provocative essay.

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

There's an element of the nature film to Grizzly Man, and those passages are truly stunning, offering an up-close look at these magnificent animals.

Miami Herald Peter Debruge

Herzog himself is one of the great lunatic directors of our century, a mad genius who repeatedly attempts to challenge nature and the gods in his own films.

USA Today Claudia Puig

A haunting and fascinating portrait of so much that is worth exploring: the implacability of nature, the hubris of human endeavor and the line between supreme dedication and madness.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

Compelling, disturbing.

Boston Globe Staff (Not credited)

Timothy Treadwell was killed, along with his girlfriend, by a rogue bear in October 2003.

New York Post V.A. Musetto

Herzog tries to make sense out of the blond-haired young man, who looked an awful lot like Kinski.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Actually three movies in one: a wildlife film about how grizzly bears behave in their natural habitat, a character study of an eccentric environmentalist, and a chilling, voyeuristic narrative of how death stalks that man.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Herzog conducts his own expedition into knowing the unknowable -- the true task of any filmmaker. Herzog makes it an art.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps

Herzog is still the only person who could have made Grizzly Man. His admiration for Treadwell has its limits, but he understands, better than most directors, what it means to follow dreams into the belly of the beast.

Dallas Observer Luke Y. Thompson

Herzog is primarily interested in Treadwell the filmmaker, but you'll likely be fascinated with him as a human being.

Chicago Reader Joshua Katzman

This is an engrossing look at obsessive behavior gone terribly awry.

Slate David Edelstein

Makes for quite an emotional roller-coaster ride. You don't know whether to celebrate or mock, to laugh or weep.

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

Herzog wants us to see a deluded nobility in this quest. Treadwell's flawed dreams were, in the end, all too human.

Chicago Tribune Allison Benedikt

The movie here is Treadwell's footage--some of it beautiful, much of it difficult to watch.

San Francisco Chronicle Walter Addiego

This is the heart-rending true story of a man with a seemingly benign preoccupation that turned into something close to madness and brought him to a terrible end.

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

Though some see Treadwell as an idealistic martyr who made the ultimate sacrifice for his passion, others vilify him as an arrogant fool who courted his own end.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

A rapt fascination with transcendent lunacy runs through Herzog's work, both fiction and documentary; while disdaining Treadwell's rhapsodically anthropomorphized vision of nature.

LA Weekly Ella Taylor

While Grizzly Man is never less than a fascinating portrait of a troubled Peter Pan who couldn't function in human society and tried to remake the animal kingdom into his own private Hanna-Barbera cartoon, it fails to establish Treadwell as much more than a serious headcase, let alone a titanic figure.

Film Threat Pete Vonder Haar

The results are by turns fascinating, horrifying, and maddening.

The New Republic Stanley Kauffmann

The film is repetitious. Herzog has varied the original footage with some interviews that he conducted with a former Treadwell girlfriend and some other friends and observers. Still, an hour of it would have been more effective than the present feature length.

The average user rating for this movie is 6.8 (out of 10) based on 84 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Mithyus gave it a10:
Looking through everything the movie is said to be, the polemics and the opinions, you will see one undeniable truth - Grizzly Man shows the history of a man whose love, ideal, and the perseverance in defending them gave him a meaning in life. Timothy Treadwell shows us the most raw essence of the conscious human in search for happyness, disregarding the common limitations of human behaviour and going beyond. And even if Herzog sometimes blurs this focus, the inspirational story of this admirable man and his love for animals and nature are presented in a perfectly solid way. Truly, a masterpiece of real life.

Matt B gave it an8:
Half way through this film I thought it was the funniest mockumentary since Spinal Tap- if it wasn't for the bear footage. The fascinating thing about this documentary is that all the participants are hilarious, overblown, and larger than life. Christiphor Guest et al would be hard pushed to CREATE characters and lines as funny as these. Do people like this really exist? The ex girlfriend recounting her and Timothy's meeting in a restaurant and the macabre coroner talking about body parts, not to mention the helicopter pilot's complete lack of emotion and Treadwell's mania are some of the elements that lend themselves to one of the most bizarre documentaries I have ever seen. Bravo!

Brenden B. gave it a7:
Worth watching for the wildlife scenes alone. Too much footage of his ex.

Spanky V. gave it a4:
Goofball movie. Guy is a nut case. Why is awards go to the "kookiest"movies? Oh yeah, the people giving the awards are kooks.

Matthew B. gave it a6:
The last reader's comment said the "film was real." But here's the problem I have with Herzog, his staging many key scenes, then pretending he doesn't. The coroner for instance, who is obviously reading lines. Not to mention the "actor friend." The scene where Herzog pretends he's hearing the tape for the first time is especially painful, only because it highlights Herzog's superficial qualities that only point toward his filmmaking tendencies. I had the same problem with this film that I had with his most recent "White Diamond," only moreso, feeling its subject exploited in the name of the filmmaker's thesis. At the same time, the Treadwell footage was in and of itself absolutely fascinating, if not disturbing, in that all too familiar Reality Television kind of way (the confessions to the camera, for instance). All in all, a not very good film from a very problematic filmmaker, whose work leaves me more and more frustrated, often infuriated, as the years go on.

Tim D. gave it an8:
This film contains come fascinating momnents. Timothy Treadwell is such a perverse and captivating character that he manages to steal the attention in a film that should be about some of the most stunning wildlife footage ever shot. Treadwell iks a character that no other country could have created. A man who goes from a Gulllivers' Travels themed restaurant to living with bears and foxes, via Cheers auditions. There is a chilike innocence to him that is both endearing yet demanding of sympathy. He is a true eccentric of film, and not in a 'look, i've put marshmallows in my ears, aren't i wacky?' sort of way. The film however lacks a bit of direction. Herzog's footage is spliced together in a somehwat discombobulating order that, while covering a lot of ground, gives us the impression that we aren't moving anywhere. His commentary can also be sometimes be condescending. Which is a shame, because Grizzly Man could have been one of the greatest documentaries put to film.

Nick S. gave it a10:
Those who rate this film very low and simply dismiss Treadwell as a "fruitcake" are the true fruitcakes, systemic examples of the proud ignorance that not only ALLOWS the social world of man to remain the chaotic and indifferent power game it has evolved into but further REINFORCES these same harmful machinations that drove the weak-hearted Timothy Treadwell into his tragic existence alone in the wilderness. The natural world (and hence all the things existing within it) is an ethically crazy and mixed-up thing, and it saddens me to see people trashing the work of a man (Herzog) who is simply attempting to make honest sense of it all and share his findings with us along the way. The film is not "flawless" or "perfect," but on a sliding scale relative to the vast majority of things that daily barrage my periphery, it easily deserves the highest endorsement.

Grizzly Man Lions Gate Films Inc.

Grizzly Man
Lions Gate Films Inc.