Grizzly Man

Started by MacGuffin, July 08, 2005, 03:50:41 PM

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MacGuffin



Trailer

Release Date: August 5th, 2005 (LA/NY); expands to other cities at later dates

Director: Werner Herzog

Premise: A devastating and heart-wrenching take on grizzly bear activists Timothy Treadwell and Amie Huguenard, who were killed in October of 2003 while living among grizzlies in Alaska.

Genre: Documentary
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


Skeleton FilmWorks

mutinyco

"I believe in this, and it's been tested by research: he who fucks nuns will later join the church."

-St. Joe

Pubrick

i've been trying to think of how to phrase it, that if u replace the subject of bears with "herzog's vision of cinema" then he becomes the grizzly man. dude defies boundaries like it's his job, and it will probably kill him in the end. like, is he broke or what??
under the paving stones.

mogwai

Quote from: MacGuffinTimothy Treadwell
what a moron.

Myxo

Some of the footage from the trailer looks like he wasn't respecting the natural boundaries of those animals. My grandfather lives in Wrangell, Alaska. He says every year two or three people die from Grizzly attacks. It's one thing to seek protection for the animals, but it's quite another to expect them not to eat you.

They're not smart, like apes.

Bear gets hungry. Bear eats activist.
Bears gets mad. Bear eats activist.

GoneSavage

I will definitely be seeing this.  I need more documentaries about animals in the theatre.

Pubrick

Quote from: GoneSavageI need more documentaries about animals in the theatre.
under the paving stones.

polkablues

Quote from: Pubrick
Quote from: GoneSavageI need more documentaries about animals in the theatre.

But that was only a faux documentary, like "Spinal Tap" or "Waiting for Guffman".  Theodore in particular had a difficult time hiding his classical acting roots.
My house, my rules, my coffee

GoneSavage

Sweet.  I'm gonna Netflix the shit out of that.

mutinyco

"I believe in this, and it's been tested by research: he who fucks nuns will later join the church."

-St. Joe

Ultrahip

anybody know what that hooo-yip, hooo-yip, hooooo song is?

grazie.

MacGuffin



Across the line of death one of the greatest filmmakers ever, Werner Herzog, and one of the nuttiest nature gazers ever, Timothy Treadwell, have connected. in October of 2003 Treadwell was killed in Alaska by a grizzly bear. Treadwell had spent 13 summers in an Alaskan national park befriending wild grizzly bears and making hundreds of hours of video. Soon after his death Herzog became aware of Treadwell and his footage and using new interviews created a documentary showing there are some lines that human beings just shouldn’t cross.

Werner Herzog: Who are you writing this for?

Daniel Robert Epstein: It’s a website called SuicideGirls. It's kind of like Playboy for punk girls.

WH: That's a good title for a magazine.

DRE: I heard that you yourself were actually following grizzlies this past year.

WH: No but I spent two years in Alaska many years ago with my first born son, who was 14. We celebrated the end of his childhood and set out without even a tent. We built ourselves a place to sleep and we had some basic foodstuff like salt, rice and noodles so we wouldn't starve. The pilot left us at the lake and picked us up eight weeks later.

DRE: So it’s like his Bar Mitzvah?

WH: In some sense, probably yes. But what was not like a Bar Mitzvah was that we liked it so much we repeated it next year. You do not repeat a Bar Mitzvah.

DRE: One of the most interesting things about this film that you as the narrator sometimes don’t agree with Tim Treadwell. I read that you feel he is putting the animals through a Disneyfication.

WH: There's an ongoing argument with him. I think that brings a lot of life into the movie and of course I could not agree with the kind of Disneyization of wild nature and the kind of sentimentalized view. I'm not into that. I don't see any harmony in the universe. I think it's rather chaotic and hostile and that's about it.

DRE: Once he deviated from the thing he usually did and went back to the park at the wrong time. There were bears that he didn't know.

WH: We do not know. I think he could have been killed anytime. The danger of being in the presence of grizzly bears is not as high as you think. That's a sort of the demonization of the wild grizzly. Statistics tells us that since 1903, not more than 12 or 14 people got killed by grizzlies and many more were killed by moose.

DRE: Moose are crazy.

WH: And about 800 times more Americans lost their lives after being stung by a wasp. The dangerous bears are the polar bears. So when you meet the polar bear and you're on some ice shelf, you better have a high powered rifle with you or a helicopter that lifts you out of danger. They go after your meat right away because they hunt human sized mammals like seals and walrus.

DRE: Timothy was obviously at some point in the future, planning on doing something with this footage. Whether he would be able to, it's questionable. Besides doing what you did, would an editor have been able to do something with all of his footage?

WH: They probably would have come out with something that was maybe a series of films or one big film. I saw a one hour show Timothy made himself, where he's Prince Valiant protecting the bears against the evil poachers. You see bears and bear cubs that are very cute and fluffy and fishing for salmon. I think it was very fortunate that Treadwell and I somehow met even though he was already dead because I saw something hidden in the footage that probably wouldn't have been filmed ever, but I can't speculate. We were both lucky we ran into each other.

DRE: It's very easy to see why you and him connect. In another lifetime, maybe you could have been him if you were born in America, near Orlando, Florida.

WH: Had I been born in Orlando, Florida, my career would probably would have ended at 21 as a failed bank robber.

DRE: But Timothy was an adventurer and that is what you are.

WH: No, wrong. I cannot stand the notion of adventure in our time. Adventure ended in the very early 20th century, probably in the late 19th century, when there was an unknown world still to be discovered. Where there was still terra incognita, where you were alone and didn't have a cell phone on you to make contact and call for Mom if you were in trouble. The notion of adventure is deep and inherent in humankind, but of course it got lost when the world was explored to its last corners. To see how much it degenerated is the fact you can book an adventure trip now to New Guinea to see the “headhunters” and the "cannibals".

I believe that adventure ended with a silly quest, a totally degenerate idea of being the first one at the North and South Poles. That's when it changed over into something ridiculous. So don't call me an adventurer. It's a shameful sort of attribute. Let's say in 1905, you were at a big party on Central Park East. The ladies were coming around you because you told them that you killed five bull elephants in East Africa and you've got these huge tusk trophies. You would be the center of attention and the females would converge around you. Today if I was at a party and I said that I shot five bull elephants, the first young woman would throw her drink in my face or slap me. You see what I am trying to say? So don't call me an adventurer, I'm not into that.

DRE: I think James Cameron wants to be the first filmmaker to shoot a film in outer space.

WH: Which I would like to do myself and actually, right off the Grizzly Man, I made a science fiction film which was shot in outer space. It was in the vicinity of our planet with real astronauts and with a real mission. Of course I shot on a planet and that's the title, The Wild Blue Yonder. I'm floating on a planet which is very beautiful because the skies and clouds are completely frozen and the astronauts are drifting and floating around liquid helium.

DRE: That's a very nice thought.

WH: Just wait for that one. [laughs]

DRE: I've spoken to Zak Penn recently when Incident at Loch Ness was released and he is just great. Are you doing the poker movie together?

WH: If I am free because right now I'm preparing a feature film called Rescue Dawn in Thailand. If I'm not shooting at that time, I will probably be a part of it.

DRE: So when you have dinner parties does Crispin Glover really come over?

WH: I don't have dinner parties. I invite people with whom I want to spend the evening and I cook. I have two or three persons maximum.

DRE: So Crispin Glover doesn't show up that often to your house?

WH: No, but I paid him a visit a fortnight or so ago at his house. It was a very good talk and enjoyed it tremendously.

DRE: What's the soccer feature that you're going to be doing?

WH: I have not heard about it. Some people approached me to do something, and I declined the offer, but I don't even remember what exactly it was. It took me five minutes to decline and then somebody over the internet claimed that I was doing a film on soccer. So you better not trust the internet.

DRE: Is Rescue Dawn exactly based on your documentary, Little Dieter Needs to Fly?

WH: Yes, to some extent. But I cannot claim that I am doing it until we start. Always in this profession, there are bumps in the road and things might unravel a day before I start shooting.

DRE: What sold you on having Christian Bale star in Rescue Dawn?

WH: I find him one of the greatest talents of his generation and we made up our own minds long before he did Batman.
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


Skeleton FilmWorks

Myxo

I watched a news story about this guy on CBS last night.

Apparently when he was killed by a rogue grizzly, this guy had his camera switched on but the lens cap was still in place. Only Herzog and two other people have ever heard the audio from the attack but it was enough to bring Herzog to tears. The lady in possession of the tape who allowed Herzog to hear it has never listened to the tape herself. Herzog says to her (after just listening to the tape and sobbing), "You should never listen to this." Basically the CBS story revolved around this guy as a failed actor turned enviromentalist loon.

I'm definetly going to see this when it is in Portland.

mutinyco

"I believe in this, and it's been tested by research: he who fucks nuns will later join the church."

-St. Joe

Myxo

Quote from: mutinycoUh... ABC...
Damn! I always mess up some mundane detail!