I was very moved by the part in Grizzly Man where Herzog films himself listening to the tape of Treadwell’s death. In our class, students were arguing that it was not Herzog’s place to tell Timothy’s mother if she should or should not listen to it, but I disagree. It was not like he was forcing her to do what he said, he was just giving her advice. It is like when you are first trying a food and you ask someone else to taste it first. Maybe the persons response after eating the food will be “I don’t think you will like this.” The person is not telling their friend to not eat the food, just simply giving them a heads up before they dive into the meal.
I particularly liked the way this scene was executed because the camera’s focus was all on the woman face and the only thing that was seen of Herzog was the back of his head. I think it was a good move on Herzog’s part to not include the audio of Treadwell’s death in the film because it would have made the film gory, which is not what it was intended to be. Viewers would have been surprised and maybe offended if the real audio was included in the film. It is true that Herzog is making a documentary on Timothy Treadwell, but I do not believe that not including the audio of Timothy’s death made the film any less legit.