Grizzly Man DVD is missing a scene
 

Just wanted to warn everbody that the DVD of Werner Herzog's amazing doc, Grizzly Man is missing the scene where Treadwell appears on David Letterman. I'd imagine they had some dispute over the rights of the footage or something. Not the biggest loss but still sucks that the film's been altered.

That accounts for the "This Film has been modified" message at the beginning.

At least it's only Letterman and not some of the incredible footage shot by Treadwell.

I am still buying this badboy today, with or without that scene. Excellent flick.

And Letterman missing is no big deal to me...I can live without it. Saw it last night and it was a fantastic viddey! Could have used more back story on Tread though. That bear rumble was awesome. And yes, I would have liked to have had the killing audio.

Great job, Herzog...:thumbsup:....love the reference to Kinski.:lol:

For those who saw this in theaters, was there any interesting tidbits from the Letterman interview? It probably wasn't a big loss in the DVD cut, but I'm curious.

If I recall correctly, the Letterman footage contains a pretty haunting piece of unintentional foreshadowing when Treadwell makes a reference to his (eventual) demise. Shame they had to cut this scene, for a variety of reasons.

From my understanding, the Letterman footage was removed, not because of a rights issue, but at the request of Letterman, who felt uncomfortable with it given the ultimate outcome of the story.

In the scene Letterman asks, in a humorous way, if someday we'll all be seeing a story of Treadwell being eaten by the grizzlies. And there's the expected audience laughter. I was disappointed to find out the scene is missing in the DVD. The scene points out how Treadwall had become part of this country's pop culture at the time and had become well-known enough to appear on a show like Letterman's. Letterman's comment, obviously, added a level of darkness (Do we sometimes ignore the danger inherent in stories like this because we enjoy the thrill too much?). While the move deals with our interaction with nature, this very brief scene (a couple of seconds) seemed important to what Herzog was trying to suggest about celebrity, personal goals and dreams, dangers inherent in these stories, and our eagerness to laugh at the misguided. I am also a little surprised that many comments above seem so unconcerned about modifying a movie from its original release for a DVD release. It's not a practice I like to see.

Glad I saw this in theaters. I could see why the footage was cut, but I think it was important to show that Treadwell achieved some form of fame and that he wasn't always a complete loon. Also, it makes more sense when he alludes to Letterman later.

No sale.

Thanks for the warning.



Agreed.

This movie is a fairly special case, in which most of the footage was shot for reasons other than making the movie that was eventually made. As was stated above, they didn't have total control over the clip and so they had no choice but to take it out when Letterman asked them. This is not the beginning of trend.

That being said, it's still a great movie with or without the scene, and to pass it up just because of that would be a mistake.

does anyone have a link to view the letterman footage that was cut?

I'm with inDefiance on this issue, and this title just went from a purchase to a rental.

Complete bullshit. Its part of the movie and it probably had to do with money. If Letterman gave his OK to put it in the theaterical movie, he wasn't afraid of publicity regarding the clip.

I can't believe people aren't more pissed off about this.

I completely agree.

Just rented it the other night... very interesting movie. Loved the animals but Tim was a complete wacko. ;) Still glad I saw it though, very well done docu.

No doubt. Just because I bought the dvd does not mean that I was not pissed. I just chose to be pissed for about 5min rather than 5 days or 5 weeks. Pass up the film/dvd because the Letterman clip is MIA? Psychobabble.

I don't know - it's doubtful that Letterman actually personally signed off on the clip to begin with. He's got licensing people for that. Then maybe later when the film came out, he saw it or someone told him about it, and he wanted the clip removed. That makes more sense than the idea that he was demanding more money. In any case, it's too bad, as it's an eery scene. Maybe Letterman thought it was in bad taste to include it.

I would agree with your comments, Indy. It's one thing to agree to the footage being used initially, and bear in mind (no pun intended) it's doubtful Letterman would have viewed the film before it was released - but once it is released and there are articles, interviews with Herzog and reviews which talked a lot about the disturbing nature of some of the footage (and audio, though this is never actually heard), it becomes more prevalent in peoples minds and is talked about a lot (especially here in the UK at the moment, where it has just had it's theatrical release), obviously Letterman has become more aware of the effect of the film itself and his footage, and has had time to reflect on his decision to include it.

So I guess I can understand where he is coming from.

I just bought the R1 release, and never saw the film at the cinema so I have never seen that footage, but I am not crying or moaning about it's exclusion because I can understand the reasons for it.

If others want to invoke the old knee-jerk reaction to having their movie tampered with regardless of the reasons behind it, fine. You go your way, I'll go mine.

This movie is being shown on the Discovery Channel tonight in Canada, if anyone is interested.

It is on Discovery in America also, but even better, afterwards, they are showing a documentary (that should have been on the DVD) that discusses the claims that some of the interviewees were actors and not his real friends (I never thought that).

Hmm, I wonder if the excised footage will be included. May have to DVR it even though I have the DVD from Netflix right now (watching it this weekend).

I thought several people in the film seemed more like actors than real people. This wouldn't surprise me. Not that I really care, the foootage in the wilderness is the best part of the film.

will the Letterman footage be on tonight?

Yes.

Have had the Discovery Channel broadcast on in the background - just saw the Letterman footage. It's short and non-essential, but is a nice bit of foreshadowing, and nicely sets up the first interview with Treadwell's former roommate. Looking forward to the documentary on the documentary.

cheers,

-the Jesus

I was suprised more that the footage of snuff where the grizzly Bear mauled and killed the person was not included.

It was funny the bear was strucked by a fryin pan during the fight

I haven't seen the film.
Approximately how long was the deleted Letterman footage?

Less than a minute.

Just ordered the dvd a day ago & was surprised to see it on the discovery channel last night, So I DVR it, and am glad I did to have the extra doc at the end, which is for some strange reason not included on the DVD, and to have the moment of footage with David Letterman where he hauntingly quips, Now we're not going to read in some newspaper someday that you have been eaten by a grizzly bear are we?... something close to that, and yes there is a nervous laughter response from the audience IMO. Any way I too found Grizzly Man a fascinating documentary. I am looking forward to seeing it without the 201 commercial breaks throughout the broadcast last PM!!!

Watched it on Discovery, and was enthralled the whole way. There were way too many commercials. Unreal. It was worth it for the bonus footage at the end though.

Could someone who saw the extra footage on the Discovery Channel tell us a bit more about it? Exactly what was said about the alleged "fake friend" interviews? Thanks.

Hmm...I actually thought as much when I saw the movie, as the people seemed like their interviews were rehearsed. I would like to know more about this if info. develops.
If true, it still has no impact on the fact that Treadwell shot some great footage, and was still quite the loon.

One of the things Herzog likes to do in his documentaries is not hide the artifice involved. I doubt he rehearses his interview subjects, but when you point a camera at people, they inevitably start acting, because they know they're being recorded. Some documentarians try to avoid this by getting the people to act more "naturally" but it seems like Herzog is more interested in the insights to be gained by letting people "act" for the camera since that's their natural instinct. He also likes to hold the camera on them after they've run out of things to say, just to see how they act then. There's more of this in The White Diamond and The Wheel of Time.

The doc was basically a round table discussion with/to Herzog? (don't think he was there in the room), and some of the other friends from the film, one of whom stated she never destroyed the audio tape of Treadwells & Amy's death as Herzog had suggested in the film, and she stated she "just couldn't do that" but she did not know why.
I didn't notice any mention of 'fake friend' interviews. I don't think I missed anything there. One of the gentleman introduced himself as a friend of Treadwells from California and he was also an 'actor' but I assumed he meant that it was his career and not 'acting' for the interview!
Anyone else notice anything from the approx. 35 min doc at the end of the broadcast ?

They showed a few of the thousands of photographs that he had taken over the years. Some were absolutely amazing.

I agree. I would love to see an exhibit of his photography. Beautiful stuff.

Is the missing scene the one where Grizzly man argues with Letterman over the seige on Christmas? That shouldn't have been cut...

I'm bummed that I missed this airing of Grizzly Man on the discovery channel... I would have liked to have seen the extra doc. Maybe my gf dvr'd it. I'll find out later tonight. If not, I'm adding this to my blockbuster online queue.

watched it just now (DVR from the first airing) and was suprised by the Letterman footage, had not been back to the thread since before the airing. As others have said, the short documentary after the film was quite interesting. I really wish it was included in the DVD. Also, they talked in the doc about people's morbid curiosity and wanting to hear the tape of the bear attack which resulted in the deaths. I have to admit, my morbid curiosity wants to hear it. Don't know why, just feel compelled to hear it after watching the whole movie. Overall, I was quite impressed and would not mind picking it up later on, especially if another release with more raw footage and stills is made.