Documentary: In The Edges

Bob-Dubery

Werner Herzog made a movie Grizzly Man about naturalist (not the kind that takes their clothes off)/ bear expert / lunatic Timothy Treadwell who spent 13 summers living amongst grizzly bears in Alaska. Treadwell kept extensive video and audio diaries and much of the footage in the film is taken from this. I found it compelling and, in places, astonishingly beautiful.

Anyhoo.... an interesting extra packaged with the DVD is In The Edges, a documentary on the making of the film's soundtrack. Key figure in all of this is Richard Thompson so I'll declare that interest early on (I've had the soundtrack CD for years, but only got around to watching the movie recently).

The movie was shot on a relatively small budget. Only a fraction of that was put aside for music. Of that fraction a lot of money went on one song, a country song by Don Edwards used for the film's ending, so not much was left for the original music.

On top of this Herzog put some constraints around the musicians - who had never worked together before as an ensemble - chiefly that they do no scoring at all before the recording sessions, that they improvise in the studio and that they try to not just match music to images on the screen. Because of the budgetary constraints they had just two days to get the job done.

So this makes for a fascinating documentary. The music is largely improvised on the spot. The producer is Henry Kaiser - not your average Hollywood soundtrack producer. Werzog gives some interesting directions from time to time "I need right on the spot authority. Set your foot down!". At other times there are specific requirements in terms of duration. At one point Herzog observes to the camera how difficult this is, telling a musican that he has 22 seconds and so he has hardly any time to develop a melody before he has to end it all - precisely on time.

So, a fascinating look at musicians having to conjure up tunes on the spot and yet work within strict confines.

AlanRatcliffe

Hertzog is known to be a bit of a taskmaster. Making actors push 300 ton steamships across land for realism (Fitzcarraldo), et. al. ?

Treadwell struck me as more a lunatic than a bear "expert". He did everything he shouldn't have, and was repeatedly warned not to do, and paid for it with his life. Sadly his girlfriend paid for it too.

Bob-Dubery

Alan Ratcliffe wrote: Hertzog is known to be a bit of a taskmaster. Making actors push 300 ton steamships across land for realism (Fitzcarraldo), et. al. ?

Treadwell struck me as more a lunatic than a bear "expert". He did everything he shouldn't have, and was repeatedly warned not to do, and paid for it with his life. Sadly his girlfriend paid for it too.

This is one of the questions the movie poses. What to make of Treadwell? He did get away with it for 13 years, well 12.999999, and clearly he was driven. One of the compelling things about much of Treadwell's footage is the juxtaposition of beauty and danger. There's all this fantastic Alaskan scenery, green pastures, big sky, crystal streams and yet danger is very close too. There's a scene where Treadwell goes bathing in a stream that already has a grizzly in it ? A couple of occasions where he faces a bear down and gets away with it.

So, yes, not exactly your 9-5 wife and 2.4 children guy.

I'm not making a case for Treadwell. Clearly he chose to live an extreme lifestyle, but maybe society needs a few of those people, the people who rush in where angels fear to tread. What he left behind makes for a compelling story, whether you think he's a fruit cake or not.

AlanRatcliffe

Granted, and the film served it's purpose admirably, sparking discussion and showing that while he eventually died, he had some amazing experiences and shot some wonderful footage. He was crossing the common sense line too often to get away with it forever though and was ignoring basic safety precautions, seemingly oblivious/contemptuous of the risks involved. While I have no problem with someone who is prepared to risk their lives to have such amazing experiences, its madness not to take what precautions you can. That crosses the line and speaks more to obsession than enthusiasm. I also have a problem with the way he was prepared to take the same risk with his girlfriend's life and those of the very animals he loved (the two brown bears that killed him were hunted down and killed - standard practice and he would have known it).

Alaska does not suffer fools gladly. Christopher McCandless was another one...

singemonkey

The film did make clear that Treadwell was bi-polar and not coping well with it. So his decisions weren't all made from the same starting point as they would be for someone with average brain chemistry.

But it also highlighted for me the idea of anthropomorphising animals. This idea that wild animals can share the zany emotional bonds that you attach to them. I mean, imagine a bunch of aliens were zooming around studying the Taliban. They exhibit so many characteristics of intelligence, and comradeship for one another that eventually the alien decides that it can try to join their world... and then gets mowed down by AK47s. Big danger on projecting onto other species with vastly different minds and motivations from our own.

Still, it did demonstrate that, in general, grizzly bears aren't go to savage you to death just because you're there. But once every 13 years, they will ?

That making of the sound track sounds absolutely fascinating. Hertzog does like putting people under pressure, doesn't he?

Bob-Dubery

AFAIK the documentary is included amongst the extras in the regular DVD. So if you have access to the movie you should get In The Edges as well.