Werner Herzog's Grizzly Man isn't so much a documentary about human vs. nature but about human nature itself. Timothy Treadwell was a Hollywood actor who became obsessed with grizzly bears, lived among them with his girlfriend in Alaska and, ultimately, died by bear mauling. "He wanted to be a movie star, and he presents himself as a big star, and I gave him the space to be the star, even the best music, the great music by Richard Thompson," Herzog told NPR's Scott Simon in 2005. "And I said to Richard, 'Richard, this is the star. Give me the great music.' And so he did that."
Thompson's instrumental score, centered around solo electric guitar improvisations and gnarled chamber compositions, has always stood out as his most grandiose and untamed across his several decades of music. "Treadwell No More," which appears on the Music from Grizzly Man reissue out May 6, is an opportunity to hear Thompson's spindly, tremolo shudder gaze into the gaping maw with equal parts fear and wonder.
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