Netflix: Grizzly Man (2005)

A few weeks ago, I decided to compile of montage of pictures depicting human psychosis. Conveniently, I found all the necesarry images during a single viewing of Grizzly Man.

Without holding you in suspense, here are the top ten signs you might be crazy:


Grizzly Man is about this dude that goes to Alaska every summer to "live" with grizzly bears. Said dude is like 75% crazy, 25% actor, maybe 10% into guys and 10% always giving 110%. Let me run that by you again: He goes to live with GRIZZLY bears. Not koala, teddy or Care Bears, in case you misread. But, real, live grizzly bears. They've got these huge fucking claws and they are frighteningly aware of what to do with them!

Grizzly Man takes a video camera out into the Alaskan wilderness and films himself in insanely close proximity to grizzly bears, many, many times. He also has a penchant for attributing human qualities to grizzly bears and psychic bear-controlling powers to himself. He thinks he can reason with the bears. Or so he tells the camera. Needless to say, he and his girlfriend get eaten by a bear. Shocker. You find this out about 5 minutes into the movie. Knowing this makes you view things differently than if he had not been eaten. He keeps talking about how a particular patch of forrest is dangerous because of the thick woods and that you could walk right into a bear with neither of you having an inkling the other was there. Ok, probably want to stay away. Then he says that it gets even worse late in the season because the healthy bears have migrated and only the sickly, old and desperate-for-food bears are left to roam this particular patch of wilderness. He talks over and over again about how dangerous what he is doing is. And then, for unspecified reasons, delays his pick-up (by boat plane) to extend his time in this dangerous spot. On some level he comprehends his stupidity. Couple the video evidence with the anecdotes of his unstable emotional condition throughout his life and I just couldn't help but get the feeling that Grizzly Man pre-meditated his mauling. Maybe he didn't know it was going to happen on that trip to Alaska, but I think he wanted to be killed by bears. He did very little to protect himself from the possibility (refusing to carry a weapon or in any way harm an animal of any kind, let alone a killer bear) and he continually put himself in situations where it could easily happen.

The juxtaposition of Grizzly Man's insistence that he had a special bond with these wild ferocious beasts and the footage of the bears considering him was haunting. The bears looked him over you might contemplate a Big Mac at McDonald's. Could be good - might enjoy it, but I'll try something else. Their cold, dead eyes seemed to say, "What the fuck is this guy doing? I'm not even going to bother mauling him."

Werner Herzog made and narrated the movie. I think after watching the 100+ hours of footage that was left behind, a little bit of the Grizzly Man crazies creeped in. Herzog keeps mentioning how Grizzly Man's girlfriend is afraid of grizzly bears, as if that's somehow unnatural. In case you don't know, be afraid of grizzly bears. Be very afraid.

Also be very afraid of the coroner that worked Grizzly Man's case. He was a little quirky too:


I have rambled for far too long. Put simply, if you haven't already, you HAVE to see this movie. For serious. Have you ever seen the brainwashing scenes in A Clockwork Orange? Well, that's what's in store for you if you don't rent this disturbing cinematic classic. Let's see if Ed agrees:

Not sure what happened there, but it looks like 5 stars to me!