Sightlines · how to watch
How to watch Grizzly Man
2005 · Werner Herzog · Grizzly Man on Sightlines
4 things to watch and listen for on a first viewing, without spoilers, and 3 more once you have seen it. Each names something you can see or hear, the pattern it belongs to, and what noticing it gives you. How these keys work.
On a first viewing
Listen for Herzog's ruminative voice breaking into Treadwell's footage. (sound)
Herzog narrates over Treadwell's tapes in his own unmistakable voice, openly disagreeing with what Treadwell believed he was filming.
Payoff: Two people are narrating this movie at once, and they do not agree.
Notice how often Treadwell frames himself with a bear behind him. (camera)
Treadwell holds long, unplanned takes with grazing bears and foxes wandering into frame, footage no hired crew could have staged or predicted.
Payoff: An amateur's persistence captured images a professional shoot could never plan for.
Watch Treadwell shift from baby talk to a furious rant. (performance)
He swings between tender, sing-song affection for foxes and bears and expletive-laden tirades against the Park Service, often within the same tape.
Payoff: You are watching a man perform a version of himself for a camera only he is operating.
Notice shots that run on after the moment is over. (cutting)
Joe Bini's cutting keeps footage past the point most documentaries would trim, letting stray wind, pauses, and retakes stay in the film.
Payoff: The extra length is where something stranger than information starts to show.
The 3 rewatch keys open on this page when you choose "Seen it?".
Carry this in: Watch for the two readings the footage supports, Treadwell's and Herzog's. The film refuses to choose.