Alaska Double Dip..

I did the double-dip of "guys lost in Alaska" movies yesterday. Started out with Sean Penn's "Into the Wild" at the theater in the afternoon, and finished with Werner Herzog's "Grizzly Man" on Netflix in the evening. I was a little disappointed in the Penn movie, I found it very long and more than a little sappy. The story is compelling, though, and there are some great cameos by Hal Holbrooke and Vince Vaughn. The soundtrack is really powerful, Eddie Vedder on every track.

The Herzog movie, on the other hand, was incredible. Like in many of his other films, most notably the treatment of Bruno S. in "Stroszek", he observes people outside of society uncritically. Timothy Treadwell is a perfect muse for Herzog, and he is treated with in a way that accepts his enormous flaws but at the same time respects his misplaced motivations. Treadwell thought that he was protecting the Grizzlys and that he had created a unique relationship with the bears. He of course had done neither. The bears were located in an enormous preserve, the Katamai National Park and Preserve, and his unique relationship ended rather disturbingly. Herzog, however, shows a certain admiration for his subject, both for his courage, which cannot be denied, and also for his art.

For the other interesting thing about Treadwell, particularly for Herzog, is that he was a filmmaker. "Grizzly Man" is based on the over 100 hours of film that Treadwell himself shot over a five year period. Herzog analyzes Treadwell's style, his insistence on a number of takes for a particular scene, etc. He also scrutinizes the clues that exist in Treadwell's film, in particular the rare and cryptic appearances of his girlfriend, Arnie Huguenard.

Richard Thompson does the soundtrack on "Grizzly Man", which is also excellent.