The soundtrack to the movie Grizzly Man is amazingly magical and compelling. Richard Thompson heads a cast of five players that includes Jim O’Rourke in a two day, improv studio session at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley to score Werner Herzog’s film The Grizzly Man. They play a variety of instruments including cello and double bass, but the main mystery and magic is in Thompson’s guitar and the interaction between the players, producers and Werner Herzog.
First of all, the movie is astounding. As I watched I kept commenting on the music not knowing the players. Some of the music is not good. But, as Herzog says, music is never background, in his movies. And as Thompson says, music is sophisticated but crude, that the music is in the edges and without those edges all you have left is notes with no music.
The music fits the documentary very well. The movie is set in Alaska and in some sense so is the music. The beauty of watching Thompson work while Herzog directs “Change the planet!” is amazing. His eyes are so beautiful, his smile. I was charmed by this music and film in a way that art rarely touches me anymore. The bends that the guitar does just tears your insides and moves like tears in all your blocked body parts. It transcends.
The connection of spirit captured by these three genius (Tim Treadwell, Thompson and Herzog) is a blessing to us all.
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by Eric Nielsen
