The Cinematheque

“Magnificent … A Shakespearean character study that packs the sheer terror of The Blair Witch Project … Each sequence is more astonishing than the last.”

Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer

Werner Herzog’s mesmerizing documentary explores the life and death of amateur grizzly bear expert and ​“gonzo naturalist” Timothy Treadwell, who for thirteen summers lived—rather recklessly, we now know with hindsight—amongst the grizzly bears of Alaska’s Katmai National Park. In 2003, the remains of Treadwell and girlfriend Amie Huguenard were discovered in the park, victims of a hungry grizzly. Treadwell left behind many hours of self-shot video footage of his life with the bears; Herzog shapes this material into a startling character study of a strange man who resembles the monomaniacal, man-versus-nature Herzogian heroes played by Klaus Kinski in the director’s fiction films. Treadwell’s tapes are a kaleidoscope of confession, performance, and self-reinvention; talking a mile a minute and sporting surfer-dude blond hair, bandana, and sunglasses, he appears as the over-the-top host of his own private reality series, his beloved grizzlies almost always nearby.

“Brilliant … Grizzly Man is the ultimate nature documentary, for it chronicles the nature of man as well as the nature of animals.”

David Denby, The New Yorker

“Poignant, beautiful, and absolutely hilarious … Werner Herzog, that connoisseur of extreme figures in far-off places, has made an inspired documentary.”

Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian