Grizzly Man

Well I'll take this as a chance really just to throw my thoughts on the documentary form itself, which I do believe can't quite be examined as just any old film. A documentary alleges a strict honesty from its name, and its suggest that all that you are seeing is truth. The truth of that is however false. In fact documentaries, due to that very idea, are quite often the least honest of all forms of film. A fictional film, even a based on a true story film, have aspects that already inform the viewer that at the very least this is "not real", whereas a documentary it is said to be all true. It is of course not as most documentaries, at least most of the truly effective ones in terms of being a film, craft their own narratives in the documentary form that will often require more tweaking of the truth than your typical biopic. Again though the key difference here is this claims all to be true. Although this approach, which I actually think one could legitimately could argue is in some ways immoral, usually results in what are seen as the best documentaries, because they are the best films. A film after all is not an information dump it is meant to be an experience. An notable filmmaker in this genre than is Werner Herzog who notably directs both documentaries, and fictional features. His documentaries are notable though as he uses himself as a character in a way, sometimes quite literally on screen, but always as the narrator. This changes his films, and grants his documentaries their own compelling idiosyncrasy. There is perhaps no greater example of this than in Grizzly Man where Herzog follows the story of a nature enthusiast Timothy Treadwell who spent his time in the wilderness literally talking to bears where he was eventually eaten by one. This examination is a requiem by Herzog who strongly contrasts Treadwell as a man with a troubled and pessimistic view of nature. This offers a strange but truly striking insight as Herzog traces the man's life, and his steps, inter spliced with footage shot of the real man among nature. It is a striking juxtaposition with sentiment and values of the documentarian and his subject. As always for Herzog he looks at a man living in an extreme, he neither wholly condemns nor condones. He allows one to see the foolish endeavor, and perhaps the fool who did it, but not without a certain sympathy for the mere idea of a human curiosity, or intention not matter how it is spent.
5/5