The way the documentary ‘Grizzly Man’ (Werner Herzog, 2005) is edited and narrated all aid to create a really interesting almost philosophical narrative out of footage that can be, at times, quite funny. We actually talked a bit about the humour of Timothy Treadwell and how it was used within the documentary. Lots of people, myself included, found it sort of hard to crack a smile until we’d gotten used to the kind of black humour of it all. Because yes – we’re allowed to smile! Some of the things he said were really, quite funny. My personal favourite was Treadwell’s endearing names (for example Mr. Freckles) for giant wild bears and the domesticity of his situation, despite everything.

Herzog uses many conventions of the documentary filmmaking to tell Treadwell’s story – such as voice over narration, ‘real’ footage, natural sound and lighting, and so on. Voice over and real footage are crucial elements of Grizzly Man and edited together, they manipulate the audience to take a certain stance on the character of Timothy Treadwell. For example, Herzog frequently shows footage of Timothy talking about death – his own, specifically – leading up to his tragic fate. This foreshadowing is imminent from the very beginning of the documentary – we know he is going to die, and this is only a reminder. This is especially evident during footage shown from just 5 hours before he was attacked, where Treadwell talks of dying for what he loves and his final resting place can be pictured in the background of the particular shot – Herzog wastes no opportunity by pointing this very fact out to the audience.

As the documentary unfolds, Treadwell is depicted to become slowly more unstable. Herzog manages to leak Treadwell’s unravelling sanity as the story plays on until we no longer see him as just a quirky, unusual but well meaning man (though I still feel this way despite the swearing rant scene).

Aside from the mostly naturalistic footage of Treadwell himself, much of the interviews with close friends and family feel… for want of a better word – fake. As we talked about in class, many of the acquaintances of his were ‘media savy’ with the pilot even being an actor, reinacting some of the events of when they found Treadwell and his girlfriend dead. The most unnerving being the Coroner – who is the one to tell the audience about the death in uncomfortable detail.

Vernon, the narrator, has a strong presence the entire documentary and even in many cases goes on a sort of… ramble, about the meaning of life. The best example of this is during the very ending where he talks of the ‘cold unfeeling’ eyes of the bears who were, in the end, Treadwell’s demise.