I just watched a couple documentaries...

So the last twomovies I watched from Netflix were documentaries, and I figured I'd review both of them at once

The first of the three was Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse, and it tells the legendary story of the troubled production surrounding Apocalypse Now, a film in my top five. This is a fascinating film, but it faces one big problem: it just isn't as interesting as Les Blanc's Burden of Dreams, about the production of Werner Herzog's Fitzcarraldo. They are unquestionably similar films, both following a crazed yet beloved director into the jungle to create the film that many consider his opus, all while facing increasingly absurd troubles, from governments, nature and actors, along the way. They key point that makes Burden better is Herzog. He is simply a more interesting person to listen to than Coppola (more on him later). Another minor flaw with Hearts of Darkness is in no way the film's own fault. There is a large section that talks about footage that never made it into the theatrical release, and it would have been fascinating to see this footage had it not been used a decade later in Apocalypse Now: Redux. Still, I don't want to be too critical of a good film. The interviews do succeed on their own, and the on-set footage is fantastic. Just see it before Burden.

Rating (out of 4 stars) ***

The second film was Werner Herzog's Grizzly Man. Before I really get into it, I should probably point out that Herzog is my favorite living filmmaker, and that I consider him a personal hero, despite the fact that he may or may not be insane. This is the story of Timothy Treadwell, a city boy from Long Island who, after years of fighting addiction, visited Alaska and spent the next thirteen summers living amongst the Grizzly Bears. Despite the illegality of his actions, he was able to get close to the Bears and other creatures living in the area. At the end of his final year, he and his girlfriend were killed, becoming the first bear-related deaths in the history of the park, something that leads Herzog to believe that Treadwell had a death wish. The footage that Treadwell shot certainly supports that idea. He speaks to the Bears like family, and he routinely gets close enough to touch them. It's quite easy to understand why Herzog was so attracted to this story. He talks about Treadwell's cinematic technique, his need for perfection and he sees a bit of himself in the footage. Near the end of the film, after watching some of his stranger behavior, Herzog talks about how it reminds him of behavior on a film set, and here he is clearly referencing Klaus Kinski, his crazed friend, enemy and muse. The film's strongest moments are those that show the fundamental differences between Treadwell, an absolute idealist, and Herzog, the angry cynic. Most of the experts interviewed seem to agree that with Herzog in that Treadwell was probably wrong, but looking at his family and friends, you come to realize that at least his heart was in the right place. If nothing else, you have to admire Treadwell for surviving like that for thirteen years, and I agree with Roger Ebert who put it best by saying, "he deserves Werner Herzog."

Rating (out of 4 stars) ****