BY MATTHEW ROSS

Grizzly Man director Werner Herzog. PHOTO: LENA HERZOG.

Perhaps no film director alive today is so closely compared to the heroes of his films as is german director Werner Herzog. From the fictional Aguirre and Fitzcarraldo to the real-life Dieter Dengler, Herzog’s men are a singular breed—obsessive, manipulative, tortured social outcasts searching for meaning in the most extreme corners of the earth. And in Les Blank’s documentaries Burden of Dreams and Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe, Herzog’s persona and relentless drive eschew any doubt about the psychological resemblance he has to his protagonists. “It is not easy for me to explain how they and I connect, but I think it’s easy to see that connection if you watch my films,” says Herzog. “All I can say is that if a perfect character for me stumbles across my path, I react, no matter what.”

It is hard to imagine a more perfect Herzogian character than Timothy Treadwell, the subject of the new documentary Grizzly Man. A recovering alcoholic and failed actor, Treadwell found his true calling as the self-proclaimed protector and documentarian of the Alaskan grizzly bears, whom he genuinely regarded as his friends. In 2003 Treadwell’s luck finally ran out when he and his girlfriend, Amie Huguenard, were eaten alive.

Environmental activist and filmmaker Timothy Treadwell. PHOTO: TIMOTHY TREADWEL.

In Grizzly Man, Herzog combines Treadwell’s video footage with his own original material (mostly interviews with Treadwell’s friends and some of his enemies), all the while offering his own voiceover commentary of what unfolds onscreen. What results is an exquisitely structured portrait of uncommon psychological complexity, in which Herzog engages both the audience and Treadwell in a dialogue about the natural world, art, denial and compassion.

“I differ with Treadwell in terms of his relationship with nature, and I argue with him over the course of the film,” explains Herzog. “But it’s like an argument with a brother whom I love. In my opinion, Treadwell had a much too sentimental view of nature, a Disneyfied understanding of it. But our fascination about wild nature and the depth of our fascination is the same, even though we come from very opposite angles. I just feel it deep it my heart—in many ways, we are incredibly similar people.” Lions Gate releases Grizzly Man on Aug. 5.a>