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Grizzly Man | 2005 | R | - 2.6.9

Werner Herzog directs this documentary of Timothy Treadwell, the man who lived among grizzly bears in Alaska convinced that he could become one of them while also keeping them safe from human encroachment. The film is put together with footage from Timothy's final visit to Alaska in 2003, when he and his girlfriend Amie Huguenard were killed by a grizzly bear. Also with Herzog, Warren Queeney and William Fulton. [1:40]

SEX/NUDITY 2 - A man talks about being good at sex, and a man talks about wishing he was gay so that he could have unencumbered sex anytime and anywhere he wanted to. A man is shown without a shirt in a couple of scenes.

VIOLENCE/GORE 6 - We are told that a camera recorded the audio of a man and a woman being mauled to death by a grizzly bear: the woman screams, and hits the bear with a pan repeatedly, while the man moans -- we see a man listening to the tape and he reacts with discomfort. A coroner describes the fatal injuries incurred by a man from a grizzly bear attack -- the bear apparently held the man by the head in its mouth -- and a coroner describes getting the remains of a man and a woman in plastic bags.
 A man describes seeing a human rib cage and a grizzly bear eating from it. We hear that a man's dismembered head and arm were found, and we hear that people were found inside a dead bear.
 We see a grizzly bear cub's dismembered paw and hear that male grizzlies will eat their young to keep the female bears from lactating (the females would then require more food). We see the skull of a young bear and we see a dead fox (there's blood on its body and a tortured look on its face) that was killed by wolves. Two grizzly bears fight over a female, they wrestle, they bite each other, and one is held on the ground, they swat at each other, and then one walks away (one defecates during the altercation). Two grizzly bears fight over a salmon and we see one of the bears eating the bloody fish. A grizzly bear stands on rocks in a stream and some of the rocks are blood stained from fish that the bear has eaten.
 A man touches a grizzly bear's back, the bear flips his head around at the man and the man recoils. A grizzly bear approaches a man, swats at him, the man yells at it and the bear walks away. A grizzly bear confronts a man holding a camera, and then it walks away.
 A man stands near two grizzly bears and talks about the possibility of being decapitated by them if he does not stand his ground. Men throw rocks at grizzly bears trying to get them to perform for them so that they can photograph them looking angry.
 A man talks about a grizzly bear having been shot in the head and neck. A man chases a fox into its den because the fox stole his hat. A small red fox nibbles on a man's finger. A man describes running along a path and seeing a crazed grizzly bear at the side of the path. A man and a woman talk about their son "spiraling into depression."
 Many small gnats flit and fly around a man's face as he speaks. A man films a mound of bear feces and puts his hand over it to feel if it is still warm.

LANGUAGE 9 - 49 F-words and its derivatives, 5 obscene hand gestures, 3 sexual hand gestures, 6 scatological terms, 4 anatomical terms, 8 mild obscenities, name-calling (losers), 2 religious profanities.

SUBSTANCE USE - A man and a woman talk about their son smoking marijuana. A man talks about being an alcoholic, and his parents talk about him "spiraling into depression and alcoholism." We hear about a man's near fatal overdose.

DISCUSSION TOPICS - Fear of death, environmentalism, ecology, feeling different, grizzly bears, Alaskan terrain, wild life protection, inspiration, loneliness, love, danger, risk taking, desperation, starvation, relationships, passion, civilization, devotion to a cause, miracles, living in the animal world vs. the human world.

MESSAGE - The wild kingdom is exactly that, and trying to understand it can be dangerous and even fatal. Nature is indifferent and amoral.

CAVEATS

Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.

We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.

Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated, Special, Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.


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