grizzly man

grizzly man is a film about the dangers of humans acting like bears.  just kidding, kind of.  it is a "docu-drama" put together by director werner herzog of footage timothy treadwell took during his annual summer quest to "protect the bears."  after watching you get the sense that timothy was protecting the bears in his mind, but in reality he may have been doing them more harm than good.  in total he spent 13 summers in the alaskan katmai national park before he was eaten by a bear.

i like this film because of the incredible footage of wild animals - this is no planet earth dvd.  timothy didn't have any idea that there was a boundary between him and the bears.  we see them up close and personal.  my favourite scenes include footage of his fox friends.  they are such unbelievably beautiful animals. 

it also provides a window into a man who is deeply troubled.  timothy's demons and passions were intense and layered.  before he decided to become the protector of the bears, timothy had struggled with drug and alcohol addictions.  it was evident that he lived life on the edge. 

the people who knew timothy and speak about him are priceless.  one man says he was acting like they were people dressed in bear costumes.  another woman speaks about timothy attempting to "mutually mutate" with the bears.  i still can't figure out what mutual mutation is and i hope i never do...  another man, sam egli who is described as timothy's close friend, and is also the pilot who flew him in and out of camp has quite a lot to say about treadwell's life and death:

 My opinion, I think Treadwell thought these bears were big, scary looking, harmless creatures that he could go up and pet and sing to, and they would bond as children of the universe or some odd. I think he lost sight of what was really going on.

there are actually too many quotes to go on...  but whether or not you've seen it, you can get a sense by reading the memorable quotes from imdb.  i know the beginning of this movie always has be giggling because of quotes like the ones above, but in the end it is a tragic story... it still however, remains as one of my favourite movies.

That bear, I think, that day, decided that he had either had enough of Tim Treadwell or that something clicked in that bear's head that he thought 'Hey, you know, he might be good to eat.'