Is nature benevolent or cruel?
Added 11/15/2009
Timothy Treadwell spent 13 years among grizzly bears in Alaska with his video camera before he was killed by one of them. A recovering alcoholic who never fit in human society, he found meaning living with the bears, whom he loved for the romantic characteristics that he projected upon them. He saw the bears as beautiful and authentic and believed that he had a genuine connection with them.
How ironic and interesting that the filmmaker who presents and shapes his footage is Werner Herzog. Treadwell captures Herzog's sympathy because his crazy obsession to confront nature is so similar to that of many Herzog protagonists in other films. Yet, where Treadwell saw beauty, Herzog sees only cruelty and chaos. Nevertheless, he seems to respect Treadwell's compulsion and presents his story with great sympathy. He also admires Treadwell as a filmmaker, and we are treated to many extraordinary images. After listening to the tape that recorded the deaths of Treadwell and his girlfriend Amie Huguenard, he tells the woman who owns the tape, a close friend of Treadwell's, that she must destroy it and never listen to it. This is far more affecting and dramatic than any voyeuristic thrill the viewer might get from actually hearing the horrible sounds. This is an extraordinary and unusual nature documentary.
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A huge disservice to Treadwell
Added 10/21/2009
I finally caught this the other night on the Discovery Channel. I was extremely disappointed in this film. Treadwell supposedly captured hours and hours of amazing footage, and none of it was shown. These two individuals died a horrendous death, and I believe this should have been a cautionary tale about what happens when you invade the space of wild animals. You play with fire, you eventually get burned. None of the audio that recorded their death was played, and autopsy photos was blurred out. If you are going to go so far to make this film and show Tim's very private confessionals, why stop short of showing people what really happened? Why not show the footage he basically died to get?
I too believe this film was exploitive of a sad soul with mental issues. I am not bashing Tim Treadwell by saying he was mentally ill-mental illness runs in my family and I can spot it a mile away. I think it's terrible that no one stepped up and helped him, whether it be his friends, family, or the park that he should have been barred from. He broke rule after rule and barely got a slap on the wrist. He was sited for improper food storage, setting up his camp in dangerous places, the list goes on (I have read several books about Treadwell), yet this is not touched on in the film. I feel the park shares some responsibility in his death allowing him to carry on the way he did for 13 summers. Why didn't someone steer him towards a job at a zoo or an animal sanctuary?
I do believe Treadwell had good but misguided intentions. He seemed like a sweet guy and I feel awful that he suffered. No good can come of harassing dangerous wild animals, which is essentially what he was doing. In the long run he probably did them more harm then good by acclimating them to humans. The whole thing makes me extremely sad. I hope Tim finds peace in the hereafter that he could not find in his time on earth.
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Self-deluded savior run amok
Added 5/19/2009
Wernor Herzog's Grizzly Man is a fascinating portrait of how an individual can come to be a self-deluded savior. Before watching it, I gave Timothy Treadwell the benefit of the doubt. I figured he was a reasonably intelligent, if not eccentric, person who got a little too close to his subject, perhaps let his guard down, got too relaxed, and forgot about the ferocity of the beasts he was dealing with. After watching it, I'm convinced Treadwill was, for the most part, an unstable, self-deluded idiot. Numerous times throughout the film, we see Treadwill disturbingly close to his subjects, as if they were simply misunderstood and not capable of killing a human. It's a theme throughout the movie where Treadwell talks about how dangerous these animals are and how dangerous it is what he's doing, but he either doesn't believe what he's saying or doesn't care.
Treadwell's megalomania comes through when he constantly talks about how he "protected" the bears for another season, how nobody else could or would do that, but he did. If we saw him stop some poaching or something along those lines, there might be some validity to his claim. But the only time we see any visitors to the area, he hides behind some foliage and complains about people harassing the bears to photograph them. Treadwill has convinced himself he needs to be there every year, and the bears need him there too for their own safety. How he's protecting them by following them around with a video camera is beyond me. He did get plenty of excellent footage of the bears so all his time is not spent in vain, but other than this, there is nothing that leads me to believe any of his time is spent in scientific pursuits.
One of the Alaskan natives that was interviewed for the film says he believes Treadwill got what he deserved, and that the reason he thought Treadwell wasn't killed sooner was that the bears probably sensed he was mentally retarded and thus, not a threat. I couldn't help but laugh at that, because I can see how there seems to be some truth to it. Several times in the movie, Herzog shows footage of an obviously unbalanced Treadwell lashing out at different groups of people he believes have wronged him. There is also an interesting exchange where Treadwell discusses his sexuality. He talks about how he has had problems in relationships with women, how it might be easier if he was gay, but then emphatically states that he is straight. I got the feeling his sexual identity was confused, and that had something to do with his isolated existence living with the bears in the Alaskan wilderness. He also alluded to an alcoholic past when he was younger, and how living among the bears had saved him from that fate.
The film itself was very entertaining throughout. Treadwell took some incredible footage that is a joy to watch. Herzog blends the footage and interviews seamlessly, and the soundtrack fits the footage very well.
Timothy Treadwell wasn't a bad person, and I think he meant well, but he used grizzly bears as escapism, a way to leave his turbulent younger life behind and find some stability and a way to cope in this world. Perhaps he found a measure of this, but unfortunately for him, those who cross that invisible line into nature need to do so shed of fairy tale notions and beliefs. Treadwell definitely didn't do that, which ultimately led to his demise.
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What a let down
Added 5/3/2009
We expected this to be about a person dedicated to the well being of the bear population in Alaska. It turns out to be about a guy who was living in another reality and thinking the real bears were cuddly teddy bears. Its amazing he didn't die sooner. Sorry. The guy was a nutcase.
However, it was a well put together documentary and we DID watch the whole thing.
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the truth about bears
Added 4/26/2009
{Several months ago a cyber-hacker (I assume) hacked into my Amazon.com account and deleted most of my reviews. Fortunately, I had saved all of my old reviews on a floppy disc, so I am able to re-post them.
But re-posting old reviews is not a pleasant chore, so I'll probably only re-post the ones which I feel are the most helpful.}
The following review was originally posted approximately 2 years ago:
Grizzly Man is one of my all-time favorite movies. It is about a kindhearted guy named Timothy Treadwell who gets double-crossed by a mean-spirited and ungrateful bear named Mr. Chocolate. For years, Timothy Treadwell does nice things for Mr. Chocolate, and Mr. Chocolate pretends to be friends with Timothy. But it's all a sham. Timothy ends up getting eaten by one of Mr. Chocolate's friends, while Mr. Chocolate does nothing to help Timothy. Maybe Mr. Chocolate is just a coward, and was afraid to help. But I tend to believe that Mr. Chocolate was in favor of Timothy getting eaten. We'll never really know for sure, because the script for Grizzly Man allows the viewer to come to his or her own conclusions.
But one thing is for sure; after watching Grizzly Man, my opinion of bears has been lowered significantly. I once viewed bears as honorable creatures. Now I view them as ungrateful creeps who think that it's okay to eat people whenever they want.
By the way, Timothy Treadwell's girlfriend (Amy) gets eaten along with Timothy. I don't really have a problem with that part of the movie because Amy wasn't very nice to the bears. It could be argued that she had it coming. But Timothy Treadwell did not deserve to get eaten by bears. Those bears should be ashamed of themselves for eating Timothy. Period.
Fortunately, it was only a movie.
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