On the Importance of Beauty

Warner Herzog wrote this in reply to fans' (and his own) complaints about the Discovery Channel's airing of "Grizzly Man." Herzog directed the film, which Discovery chopped up with an extra hour of commercials and added commentary. He said,

"Discovery added a full hour to the film...without delineating clearly where my film ends and where the additional materials start... Sure, centuries from now our great-great-great-grandchildren will look back at us with amazement at how we could allow such a precious achievement of human culture as the telling of a story to be shattered into smithereens by commercials, the same amazement we feel today when we look at our ancestors for whom slavery, capital punishment, burning of witches, and the inquisition were acceptable everyday events."