As the scene unfolds, we see Alaska's breathtaking wilderness. Grizzly bears trundle along under the summer sun in a mountain-ringed meadow. Suddenly, a young man with blond, Prince Valiant locks steps into the frame.
"If I retreat, I may be killed," he says. "They will take me out and they will decapitate me. They will chop me into bits and pieces. I'm dead. So far, I persevere. Most times, I'm a kind warrior out here. Most times, I am gentle. I am like a flower.... Occasionally I am challenged. In that case, the kind warrior must, must, must become a samurai. So formidable. So fearless of death. So strong that he will win. He will win. Even the bears will believe that he is more powerful."
The man was Timothy Treadwell and he would die in October 2003, eaten by a grizzly at a remote campsite in Alaska's Katmai National Park & Preserve. Killed along with the then-46-year-old Malibu bear researcher was Amie Huguenard, 37, his girlfriend.
Their deaths and Treadwell's highly controversial and somewhat puzzling crusade on behalf of the grizzlies is recounted in a "Grizzly Man," a documentary by veteran filmmaker Werner Herzog that premiered this year during the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, where it received strong reviews and took the festival's Alfred P. Sloan Prize for a film on science and technology. Lions Gate will release the film Aug. 5 before it eventually makes its way to the Discovery Channel.
A pioneer of the New German Cinema, Herzog, born Werner Stipetic in Munich on Sept. 5, 1942, grew up on a remote farm in the Bavarian mountains. His mystique is not unlike Tredwell's. The award-winning director, writer and producer never attended film school and had no formal film education. Some biographies point out that no one is sure how much about Herzog's life is fact and how much is fantasy. Among Herzog's films are five starring the famously eccentric German actor Klaus Kinski, including "Aguirre: The Wrath of God" (1972), shot in the remote Amazon jungles about a mad conquistadore who sets out to find El Dorado.
At the heart of "Grizzly Man" is extensive bear footage Treadwell shot during his 13 summers in the remote Alaskan wilderness. One sequence features Treadwell on camera in front of the site where he and his girlfriend would be mauled a few hours later.
"I don't think he had any fear," Herzog said of Treadwell. "Everyone who knew him speaks about it."
