[pct-l] "Grizzly Man" on TV tonight

[phix at optigan.com (Pea Hicks)]

Wayne Kraft wrote:

> I watched it, too.  It was definitely a cinematic study of a bipolar,  
> paranoid, addictive personality rather than bears.  I suppose  studying 
> such personalities is valuable to the extent that it might  enable us to 
> bring cure or comfort to such tortured souls, but  Herzog's "study" of 
> Treadwell was no more scientific or useful than  Treadwell's "study" of 
> Grizzlies. In fact there seems to be a  striking parallel between 
> Herzog's rapt fascination with Treadwell  and Treadwell's similar 
> fixation on the Grizzlies.  Likewise, Herzog  seemed to insert himself 
> into this film in somewhat the same way  Treadwell featured himself in 
> his footage.  Herzog was not obtrusive  exactly, but how many director's 
> appear at all in their films?   Herzog found himself on screen quite a 
> bit here.  The irony of it  seemed obvious enough to me that I concluded 
> that it could not have  been unintentional.

the thing you have to keep in mind about herzog is that he's not a "by 
the books" documentarian. his background is in art/experimental film, 
and he approaches making his documentaries from a decidedly and 
unapologetically "art school" subjective viewpoint. it very much helps 
to be familiar with herzog's work and methods when going into a film 
like this, or at least to know that he's not a film-maker who's 
concerned with trying to showing "objective reality" at all. inserting 
himself and his opinions into his documentaries is one way he reminds 
the audience that ALL such films that purport to show "reality" are 
always editorialized, though most of the time the op-ed work goes on in 
more manipulative ways underneath the surface.


girlscout