20 Documentary Movies You Must See Before You Die

12. Grizzly Man (2005)

Without question Werner Herzog's greatest documentary film to date, Grizzly Man is a harrowing look at an individual who decided to take on nature and paid the consequences with his life. Whilst most documentaries in the "man vs. nature" vein tend to hone in on ill-judged expeditions to mountainous regions, this one concerns bears.

Narrated in his inexpressive and often droll Bavarian accent, Grizzly Man tells the true life story of one Timothy Treadwell, a man who came to be so obsessed with the animals of the movie's title that he went and lived among them. His mistake, of course, came in his belief that he was "one of the bears" - a viewpoint that ultimately led to his untimely death.

It's easy to mock someone like Treadwell, but Herzog refuses to take that path; if anyone understands the connection between man and nature, it's the guy who made Aguirre: The Wrath of God and Fitzcarraldo. The result is a picture that is unashamedly Herzogian, but also respectful of its subject. In its most memorable scene, the director listens to a recording of Treadwell's death and distraughtly warns his friend "never to listen to ."

As a portrait of an individual and as a Herzogian parable, it's a real masterpiece.