“Grizzly Man” is on Netflix Instant

Why do people bother writing lengthy profiles of anyone who isn’t Werner Herzog?

Although his films take place everywhere (Germany, the United States, South America, Africa, Southeast Asia, Australia, the Middle East) and are about everything (adventure, courage, madness, failure, death, time, space travel, nature’s indifference), his imagistic obsessions (auctioneers, flight, monkeys, chickens, ski jumpers, dwarves, bears, boats, wind, roosters, midgets, mountains, windmills, hens) reappear again and again. Herzog’s work is marinated in cross-reference: more than one of his films features an enchanted waterfall, others turn upon ghostly visions of jellyfish, several characters wear nearly identical aviator goggles, other characters’ names recur, dialogue is often resuscitated from film to film.