Project Grizzly

Project Grizzly is a 1996 National Film Board of Canada documentary about the lifelong project of Troy Hurtubise, a man who has been obsessed with researching the Canadian grizzly bear up close, ever since surviving an early encounter with such a bear.

Plot

The film documents Hurtubise's diligent work to improve his homemade "grizzly-proof" suit of armour, his efforts to test its resilience, and his forays into the Rockies to track down the grizzlies he dreams of meeting. The film manages to capture the humor of the project as well as its sincerity. It is directed by Peter Lynch and produced by Michael Allder.

Cultural references

• Troy Hurtubise was awarded the Ig Nobel Prize by the scientific humor journal Annals of Improbable Research (AIR). [1]
• Filmmaker Quentin Tarantino called the film one of his top picks of the year on Charlie Rose.
• Hurtubise's armored suit was parodied in The Simpsons episode "The Fat and the Furriest", when Homer is attacked by a bear, and then constructs a bear attack proof suit.
• The suit was referenced in Loading Ready Run's ninth episode of Commodore Hustle, where they make a mock version of the suit, which they use to attempt to meet a bear.
• The movie was playing in the background in a deleted scene of "Talladega Nights, The Ballad of Ricky Bobby" in which Ricky is explaining to his mother how he had spent his day.
• A clip of Troy being hit by a log in his suit featured in Friday Night with Jonathan Ross during an interview of Robert Downey, Jr., in reference to the film Iron Man 2.
• The same clip of Troy being hit by a log in his suit was used in Dinner for Schmucks shown as an example of a former idiot that had attended the dinner.

External links

• Watch Project Grizzly at NFB.ca
• Project Grizzly at the Internet Movie Database