Grizzly Man

I think I might be one of the last people to watch this movie. A documentary by the controversial German filmmaker Werner Herzog the movie primarily uses footage filmed by Timothy Treadwell. Treadwell was a man who spent 13 summers in the Alaskan wilderness filming and interacting with bears.

The film has gotten great reviews, still some complain that Herzog intended to make Treadwell look disturbed and not the intelligent, naturalist that he was.

The only answer I can give to that is this is indeed how Herzog portrays him. Interspersed with the footage filmed by Treadwell are interviews taken by Herzog with wildlife officials, friends of Treadwell, and the pilot who yearly flew Treadwell in and out of his remote spots. It was this man that first discovered Treadwell's body in the fall of the fateful year.

Some of the footage that Treadwell shot is amazing. His interactions with bears and foxes are incredible. Touching some of the bears on the nose, cuddling with a fox that became almost tame to him, these are things we can all admire, feel jealous of, and yet at the same time most of realize how foolhardy these decisions were.

With incredible amounts of footage filmed by Treadwell we have no real idea what Herzog did not use. Herzog filmed an informative interview with the mans parents, they miss their son but seemed like they were resigned to the life he led and that the end result while tragic was not entirely unexpected.

As I watch the film what seemed most apparent to me that, whatever good intentions Treadwell started with, he became afflicted with some kind of persecution complex and also felt like his impact in the protecting of the bears was greater than it was.

How much he loved the bears is clear, he often becomes emotional in his speeches before the camera, as he is overcome by the beauty of what he films and his love for his subjects. Yet his diatribes at park officials, his constant referencing to his successful summer spent protecting the bears, and his constant vile language is a bit off putting.

One cannot ignore the many park officials who felt that by teaching bears to interact with humans in anyway, only made it more dangerous for other people who came into contact with them later, presumably by accident. As to his saving the bears perhaps he would have protected the bears, but seeing him hide in the woods while guides tossed rocks at his bears while he hid and whispered about how he needed " to stay hidden" makes one wonder if he was still a little kid playing at hiding from the adults in his life.

That he loved the bears can in no way be doubted, Timothy Treadwell however had some serious issues which he was was projecting onto his relationship with the wild bears of Alaska. Over and over he claimed that he would die for the bears, in the end he did, one cannot really doubt that in a way this might be fitting. Still as the filmmaker and other friends of Treadwell listen to an audio of the attack that led to his death one wonders if at some point he wished he could have made better decisions.

The movie offers natural beauty, it is interesting, if, however, one person walks away thinking that what Mr. Treadwell did is something to be replicated than the film has provided a disservice.