Across the line of death one of the greatest filmmakers ever, Werner Herzog, and one of the nuttiest nature gazers ever, Timothy Treadwell, have connected. in October of 2003 Treadwell was killed in Alaska by a grizzly bear. Treadwell had spent 13 summers in an Alaskan national park befriending wild grizzly bears and making hundreds of hours of video. Soon after his death Herzog became aware of Treadwell and his footage and using new interviews created a documentary showing there are some lines that human beings just shouldnt cross.
Check out the official site for Grizzly Man
Werner Herzog: Who are you writing this for?
Daniel Robert Epstein: Its a website called SuicideGirls. It's kind of like Playboy for punk girls.
WH: That's a good title for a magazine.
DRE: I heard that you yourself were actually following grizzlies this past year.
WH: No but I spent two years in Alaska many years ago with my first born son, who was 14. We celebrated the end of his childhood and set out without even a tent. We built ourselves a place to sleep and we had some basic foodstuff like salt, rice and noodles so we wouldn't starve. The pilot left us at the lake and picked us up eight weeks later.
DRE: So its like his Bar Mitzvah?
WH: In some sense, probably yes. But what was not like a Bar Mitzvah was that we liked it so much we repeated it next year. You do not repeat a Bar Mitzvah.
DRE: One of the most interesting things about this film that you as the narrator sometimes dont agree with Tim Treadwell. I read that you feel he is putting the animals through a Disneyfication.
WH: There's an ongoing argument with him. I think that brings a lot of life into the movie and of course I could not agree with the kind of Disneyization of wild nature and the kind of sentimentalized view. I'm not into that. I don't see any harmony in the universe. I think it's rather chaotic and hostile and that's about it.
DRE: Once he deviated from the thing he usually did and went back to the park at the wrong time. There were bears that he didn't know.
WH: We do not know. I think he could have been killed anytime. The danger of being in the presence of grizzly bears is not as high as you think. That's a sort of the demonization of the wild grizzly. Statistics tells us that since 1903, not more than 12 or 14 people got killed by grizzlies and many more were killed by moose.
DRE: Moose are crazy.
WH: And about 800 times more Americans lost their lives after being stung by a wasp. The dangerous bears are the polar bears. So when you meet the polar bear and you're on some ice shelf, you better have a high powered rifle with you or a helicopter that lifts you out of danger. They go after your meat right away because they hunt human sized mammals like seals and walrus.
DRE: Timothy was obviously at some point in the future, planning on doing something with this footage. Whether he would be able to, it's questionable. Besides doing what you did, would an editor have been able to do something with all of his footage?
WH: They probably would have come out with something that was maybe a series of films or one big film. I saw a one hour show Timothy made himself, where he's Prince Valiant protecting the bears against the evil poachers. You see bears and bear cubs that are very cute and fluffy and fishing for salmon. I think it was very fortunate that Treadwell and I somehow met even though he was already dead because I saw something hidden in the footage that probably wouldn't have been filmed ever, but I can't speculate. We were both lucky we ran into each other.
DRE: It's very easy to see why you and him connect. In another lifetime, maybe you could have been him if you were born in America, near Orlando, Florida.
WH: Had I been born in Orlando, Florida, my career would probably would have ended at 21 as a failed bank robber.
DRE: But Timothy was an adventurer and that is what you are.
WH: No, wrong. I cannot stand the notion of adventure in our time. Adventure ended in the very early 20th century, probably in the late 19th century, when there was an unknown world still to be discovered. Where there was still terra incognita, where you were alone and didn't have a cell phone on you to make contact and call for Mom if you were in trouble. The notion of adventure is deep and inherent in humankind, but of course it got lost when the world was explored to its last corners. To see how much it degenerated is the fact you can book an adventure trip now to New Guinea to see the headhunters and the "cannibals".
I believe that adventure ended with a silly quest, a totally degenerate idea of being the first one at the North and South Poles. That's when it changed over into something ridiculous. So don't call me an adventurer. It's a shameful sort of attribute. Let's say in 1905, you were at a big party on Central Park East. The ladies were coming around you because you told them that you killed five bull elephants in East Africa and you've got these huge tusk trophies. You would be the center of attention and the females would converge around you. Today if I was at a party and I said that I shot five bull elephants, the first young woman would throw her drink in my face or slap me. You see what I am trying to say? So don't call me an adventurer, I'm not into that.
DRE: I think James Cameron wants to be the first filmmaker to shoot a film in outer space.
WH: Which I would like to do myself and actually, right off the Grizzly Man, I made a science fiction film which was shot in outer space. It was in the vicinity of our planet with real astronauts and with a real mission. Of course I shot on a planet and that's the title, The Wild Blue Yonder. I'm floating on a planet which is very beautiful because the skies and clouds are completely frozen and the astronauts are drifting and floating around liquid helium.
DRE: That's a very nice thought.
WH: Just wait for that one. [laughs]
DRE: I've spoken to Zak Penn recently when Incident at Loch Ness was released and he is just great. Are you doing the poker movie together?
WH: If I am free because right now I'm preparing a feature film called Rescue Dawn in Thailand. If I'm not shooting at that time, I will probably be a part of it.
DRE: So when you have dinner parties does Crispin Glover really come over?
WH: I don't have dinner parties. I invite people with whom I want to spend the evening and I cook. I have two or three persons maximum.
DRE: So Crispin Glover doesn't show up that often to your house?
WH: No, but I paid him a visit a fortnight or so ago at his house. It was a very good talk and enjoyed it tremendously.
DRE: What's the soccer feature that you're going to be doing?
WH: I have not heard about it. Some people approached me to do something, and I declined the offer, but I don't even remember what exactly it was. It took me five minutes to decline and then somebody over the internet claimed that I was doing a film on soccer. So you better not trust the internet.
DRE: Is Rescue Dawn exactly based on your documentary, Little Dieter Needs to Fly?
WH: Yes, to some extent. But I cannot claim that I am doing it until we start. Always in this profession, there are bumps in the road and things might unravel a day before I start shooting.
DRE: What sold you on having Christian Bale star in Rescue Dawn?
WH: I find him one of the greatest talents of his generation and we made up our own minds long before he did Batman.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
Check out the official site for Grizzly Man
Werner Herzog: Who are you writing this for?
Daniel Robert Epstein: Its a website called SuicideGirls. It's kind of like Playboy for punk girls.
WH: That's a good title for a magazine.
DRE: I heard that you yourself were actually following grizzlies this past year.
WH: No but I spent two years in Alaska many years ago with my first born son, who was 14. We celebrated the end of his childhood and set out without even a tent. We built ourselves a place to sleep and we had some basic foodstuff like salt, rice and noodles so we wouldn't starve. The pilot left us at the lake and picked us up eight weeks later.
DRE: So its like his Bar Mitzvah?
WH: In some sense, probably yes. But what was not like a Bar Mitzvah was that we liked it so much we repeated it next year. You do not repeat a Bar Mitzvah.
DRE: One of the most interesting things about this film that you as the narrator sometimes dont agree with Tim Treadwell. I read that you feel he is putting the animals through a Disneyfication.
WH: There's an ongoing argument with him. I think that brings a lot of life into the movie and of course I could not agree with the kind of Disneyization of wild nature and the kind of sentimentalized view. I'm not into that. I don't see any harmony in the universe. I think it's rather chaotic and hostile and that's about it.
DRE: Once he deviated from the thing he usually did and went back to the park at the wrong time. There were bears that he didn't know.
WH: We do not know. I think he could have been killed anytime. The danger of being in the presence of grizzly bears is not as high as you think. That's a sort of the demonization of the wild grizzly. Statistics tells us that since 1903, not more than 12 or 14 people got killed by grizzlies and many more were killed by moose.
DRE: Moose are crazy.
WH: And about 800 times more Americans lost their lives after being stung by a wasp. The dangerous bears are the polar bears. So when you meet the polar bear and you're on some ice shelf, you better have a high powered rifle with you or a helicopter that lifts you out of danger. They go after your meat right away because they hunt human sized mammals like seals and walrus.
DRE: Timothy was obviously at some point in the future, planning on doing something with this footage. Whether he would be able to, it's questionable. Besides doing what you did, would an editor have been able to do something with all of his footage?
WH: They probably would have come out with something that was maybe a series of films or one big film. I saw a one hour show Timothy made himself, where he's Prince Valiant protecting the bears against the evil poachers. You see bears and bear cubs that are very cute and fluffy and fishing for salmon. I think it was very fortunate that Treadwell and I somehow met even though he was already dead because I saw something hidden in the footage that probably wouldn't have been filmed ever, but I can't speculate. We were both lucky we ran into each other.
DRE: It's very easy to see why you and him connect. In another lifetime, maybe you could have been him if you were born in America, near Orlando, Florida.
WH: Had I been born in Orlando, Florida, my career would probably would have ended at 21 as a failed bank robber.
DRE: But Timothy was an adventurer and that is what you are.
WH: No, wrong. I cannot stand the notion of adventure in our time. Adventure ended in the very early 20th century, probably in the late 19th century, when there was an unknown world still to be discovered. Where there was still terra incognita, where you were alone and didn't have a cell phone on you to make contact and call for Mom if you were in trouble. The notion of adventure is deep and inherent in humankind, but of course it got lost when the world was explored to its last corners. To see how much it degenerated is the fact you can book an adventure trip now to New Guinea to see the headhunters and the "cannibals".
I believe that adventure ended with a silly quest, a totally degenerate idea of being the first one at the North and South Poles. That's when it changed over into something ridiculous. So don't call me an adventurer. It's a shameful sort of attribute. Let's say in 1905, you were at a big party on Central Park East. The ladies were coming around you because you told them that you killed five bull elephants in East Africa and you've got these huge tusk trophies. You would be the center of attention and the females would converge around you. Today if I was at a party and I said that I shot five bull elephants, the first young woman would throw her drink in my face or slap me. You see what I am trying to say? So don't call me an adventurer, I'm not into that.
DRE: I think James Cameron wants to be the first filmmaker to shoot a film in outer space.
WH: Which I would like to do myself and actually, right off the Grizzly Man, I made a science fiction film which was shot in outer space. It was in the vicinity of our planet with real astronauts and with a real mission. Of course I shot on a planet and that's the title, The Wild Blue Yonder. I'm floating on a planet which is very beautiful because the skies and clouds are completely frozen and the astronauts are drifting and floating around liquid helium.
DRE: That's a very nice thought.
WH: Just wait for that one. [laughs]
DRE: I've spoken to Zak Penn recently when Incident at Loch Ness was released and he is just great. Are you doing the poker movie together?
WH: If I am free because right now I'm preparing a feature film called Rescue Dawn in Thailand. If I'm not shooting at that time, I will probably be a part of it.
DRE: So when you have dinner parties does Crispin Glover really come over?
WH: I don't have dinner parties. I invite people with whom I want to spend the evening and I cook. I have two or three persons maximum.
DRE: So Crispin Glover doesn't show up that often to your house?
WH: No, but I paid him a visit a fortnight or so ago at his house. It was a very good talk and enjoyed it tremendously.
DRE: What's the soccer feature that you're going to be doing?
WH: I have not heard about it. Some people approached me to do something, and I declined the offer, but I don't even remember what exactly it was. It took me five minutes to decline and then somebody over the internet claimed that I was doing a film on soccer. So you better not trust the internet.
DRE: Is Rescue Dawn exactly based on your documentary, Little Dieter Needs to Fly?
WH: Yes, to some extent. But I cannot claim that I am doing it until we start. Always in this profession, there are bumps in the road and things might unravel a day before I start shooting.
DRE: What sold you on having Christian Bale star in Rescue Dawn?
WH: I find him one of the greatest talents of his generation and we made up our own minds long before he did Batman.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
VIEW 22 of 22 COMMENTS
It might actually be the documentry.. not sure..
But he is a bit of a nutter this guy.
What he was doing was really cool, but he was over on the stupid side of the IQ line when dealing with some of the situations he delt with.
its too bad how he and his girlfriend died, I'm not sure if they played the tape or not.. but his girlfriend was recording the whole thing with the camera but didnt take the lense cap off. so all they got was audio from the bear killing both of them
courtneyriot said:
Across the line of death one of the greatest filmmakers ever, Werner Herzog, and one of the nuttiest nature gazers ever, Timothy Treadwell, have connected. in October of 2003 Treadwell was killed in Alaska by a grizzly bear. Treadwell had spent 13 summers in an Alaskan national park befriending wild...
This interview missed the rare opportunity of uttering the phrase "Bear Mitzvah" in a relevant context.