redheadedleague

Finally saw Grizzly Man last weekend, the documentary about late bear activist Timothy Treadwell. For those who don't know, Treadwell was a controversial figure who, for 13 years, spent summers living with the grizzlies of Alaska, and many claim, lost his mind in the process. Treadwell was known for touching and even kissing the bears he worked with - he considered himself "their guardian", and shunned the human world in favor of the wild one. He and his girlfriend were killed and eaten by a bear in 2003.

It's an good film, built mostly from Treadwell's own footage. Treadwell does come off as someone who has totally lost perspective, who sees himself as some sort of modern day preist of nature, in tune with all living things. His claims to have been protecting the bears seem dubious to me - one guy with no weapons isn't going to do much to discourage poachers, and his habituation of the bears to human contact may have made things worse. Was he textbook "insane?" No. But he was definitely a creature of emotions, not reason, and it cost him.

Despite the grim knowledge of what happened to him, there are a lot of funny moments in the film, many of them involving Treadwell's interaction with some local foxes. Raina and I kept thinking he should have been studying them, instead of the bears - he would probably still be alive. One unintentional source of humor was the contrast between Treadwell's manic optimism and the sullen angst of Werner Herzog, the director and narrator of the documentary. While Treadwell mourns over the corpse of a dead animal, Herzog interjects comments like, "Here I must disagree vis Timothy. I believe zuh governing prinziple of zuh universe iz not harmony, but chaos und death."

You tell 'em, Werner.

Strangely enough, after watching the movie, I found this in my email this morning.

Coincidence? I think not.