strangely enough, this was on tv the other night.

a pleasant surprise.

Watched this the other day. Very good, very unusual.

I don't think anyone has mentioned how beautiful some of the shots were. Had he not had a death wish he might have made a good cinematographer.

He was so hyper-camp at times I wanted to slap him. He seemed unaware that not only do bears and foxes not speak English but they're not around humans enough to even understand his tone, like a dog might.

He was completely delusional about protecting the bears too. When poachers come along he hid in the bushes watching them throw rocks at a young bear, doing nothing. Then when they left he must have used the phrase "I'm protecting these bears" like 10 times in one rant. Protecting them how, exactly?

ed

Not Crap film but Crap Mr Treadwell.

Contrary to what Mr Herzog said a bit of me thinks that the man having his guts ripped out was suggestive of a harmonious universe, not a chaotic one. Hostile and murderous - yes, not necessarily chaotic.

I thought I would like the guy from the read up but he was just a fucking mentally disturbed wannabe celeb who talked like Michael Jackson and was so arrogant he ended up getting not just himself killed but his girlfriend too. I wanted to hit him with a rock whenever he put on that stupid fucking baby voice talking to Mt Schnuckles or whatever.

I found the lack of information and imagery of his girlfriend as fascinating as the decision not to play the sound of them being eaten.

ehh...it was watchable. the subject of the film is consistently annoying. herzog is clearly interested in this film but gives the audience little reason to feel the same way. yes, some of the shots are beautiful...but, nature is beautiful and long extended shots of nature in a documentary may be beautiful in and of themselves but are we to credit treadwell for this? in this case, i dont think so. the long shots of water rolling and trees blowing work magic in films like "aguirre", but here they only serve to slow down the already tedious pace of the film. that said, herzog is "the man" and has earned the right to film a pile of cat shit for three hours if he wants to.

Andrew L. wrote:Did no one else think that some of Herzog's narration was trite and predictable at times? The bit about the striated glacial/ice formations mapping Treadwell's soul? Lame.

I did. I had other problems with it; this thread already hit on some of them. They aren't numerous or significant enough to warrant my casting the first crap, but given the resources/subject matter/potential..

Cranius, we disagree, 'cause I think the "overlay of this is a Werner Herzog film" is one of the things that saved it. Which isn't to say it wouldn't have been better had it not been a Werner Herzog film in the first place

wow, i guess it's a sign of how trashy and sensational the norm is now that everyone's impressed by herzog's choice to NOT play the tape.

when i saw it i thought OF COURSE you don't play the tape!


since i've never seen a herzog film before, i was laughing the whole time at the absurdity of treadwell, and at herzog, whose narration is quite bombastic. i also was laughing at how amazingly blunt the cop and the inuit were in the beginning. cop flat out says "this guy's a moron who wanted to die, the only reason the bears didn't eat him earlier is they probably thought he was retarded or something, the only tragedy is the death of his girlfriend" and the inuit is just like "this guy was hurting the bears, not helping" and they are both right.

pretty much brilliant.
and believe me, i went in not wanting to like it.

while me & the GF were watching this one night my kid woke up, and we let her stay up and watch it with us. now whenever shit gets hectic somebody says

MELISSA IS EATING HER BABIES

so thanks Mr. Herzog for giving us some new family slang.

I liked the movie.

outstanding film. herzog's telling the woman to destroy the tape is peculiar, indeed. however, my favorite part was herzog's own commentary.

"I believe the common character of the universe is not harmony, but hostility, chaos and murder."

lol. no shit, werner?

i recommend "my best fiend" to fans of herzog and kinski.