Summary Of Grizzly Man By Herzog

Although documentaries are often presented and received as objective recordings of reality, directors use editing techniques to control what the audience feels and concludes, just like they do in other forms of film. In Grizzly Man, director Werner Herzog uses cuts and the order of sequences to borrow from the reality of found footage and develop his argument that Timothy Treadwell decided to live with the bears to create a new identity, but that he knowingly made a poor decision because nature is brutal.

Throughout the documentary, Herzog effectively develops the idea that Treadwell felt like an outsider in human society and could connect better with bears. At the beginning, Herzog suggests that Treadwell sought “to leave the confinements

In one sequence, pilot Willy Fulton is at the scene of the crime, describing how he found the bear who brutally killed Treadwell. As he speaks, gnats swarm in his face, but he takes no notice of them because, as one familiar with the area, he is used to them (Herzog, 10:35). This detail functions as another source of reality that provides authority to his testimony. Herzog then cuts to footage of Treadwell with a bear in which he casually explains that old bears “do, for survival, kill and eat humans” (Herzog, 15:28). The bottom of the screen indicates that this footage was recorded ten days before Treadwell’s death. By juxtaposing these shots, Herzog forces the audience to conclude that Treadwell knew the danger of his lifestyle and accepted it, lessening the audience’s sympathy for him. Herzog strengthens his argument when he cuts from Fulton, still describing the bear who killed Treadwell, to footage of Treadwell with “The Grinch,” a bear with “kind of an aggressive attitude” (Herzog, 17:02). In this footage, the bear threatens Treadwell, who hits her on the nose and says, “Don’t you do that!” and then apologizes to the bear and says, “I love you” repeatedly. The bear clearly wants nothing to do with Treadwell, and the audience picks up on the notion that Treadwell is invading her space, desperate for companionship. This argument is only enhanced when Herzog cuts to Sam Egli, a helicopter pilot involved with the cleanup of the Treadwell tragedy, talking about finding “four garbage bags of people” in that bear and concluding that Treadwell meant well but “got what he deserved” (Herzog, 18:27). As he speaks, a photo of a bear carcass is shown, supporting the reality of his message. When the camera is focused on Egli, it slowly zooms in on his face, adding weight to his words. Then, as Egli is still criticizing Treadwell for treating