Grizzly Man Documentary Analysis

In the documentary Grizzly Man we can see that the two film makers, Timothy

Treadwell, and Werner Herzong both had a different purpose in the making of this film. For

Timothy Treadwell his purpose was to show the audience the bond between man and grizzlies

but for Werner Herzong his purpose of the film was to show the horrifying truth of a man and

nature. Throughout Treadwell’s footage we can see that he felt a strong connection towards the

grizzlies so much so that he spent 13 summers living with grizzly bears and being as close as an

arms length near an adult grizzly bear. He would assign each grizzly a name and would talk to

them as if they were a human being, saying, “sorry” if he felt that he offended them. For
Treadwell he didn’t just want to watch and document grizzly bears he wanted to live with them,

die for them, and hope that one day the grizzlies would accept as one of their own. “I will die for

these animals.”. All through the documentary we can see that Werner Herzong didn’t see

Treadwell’s footage as a man bonding with with grizzly bears instead he saw it as a man who

was hopelessly trying to become a grizzly bear. “all the bears that Treadwell ever filmed, I

discover no kinship, no understanding, no mercy.” Werner knew that the bears had no affection

towards Treadwell and that it is impossible for a man to live with and bond with grizzly bears

because for Werner the universe is filled with “chaos” and “murder” which inevitably led to

Treadwell’s death.