Grizzly Man

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Brilliant, poetic, and utterly unique.

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.

The New Yorker David Denby

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

Variety Scott Foundas

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

Washington Post Desson Thomson

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

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.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

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

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.

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."

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.