Grizzly Man
"We're not going to open the paper one day and read about you being eaten by a bear, are we?"
Grizzly Man is a 2005 documentary film about Timothy Treadwell, an obsessive, self-proclaimed grizzly bear expert. Treadwell traveled for thirteen summers to Katmai National Park, deep in the Alaskan wilderness, to live with, study and protect the large bears that live there.
As most people already know, Timothy and his life partner were eventually killed and eaten by the animals they lived with and perhaps loved more than themselves.
The film was created by Werner Herzog, a legendary and award-winning German filmmaker. For the film, he had access to several hundred hours of the astonishing nature footage that Treadwell himself recorded during his visits to the bears in the magically beautiful Katmai.
Herzog refrains from judging Treadwell's strange methods and questionable mental state and lets the viewer make up his own mind. Perhaps he is too humane to tear Treadwell apart again.
For those of us who have visited the area several times and come into close contact with the big bears, the movie brings back strong memories. Surprisingly, even for us, an encounter with a bear is not the terrifying experience one might think, but rather a warmer sense of mutual respect.
Out of the same respect and knowing what can happen in the vicinity of a large, wild animal, one naturally backs away slowly and carefully from the scene. Tempting fate as Treadwell did does not enhance the greater understanding of nature that modern man needs to regain.
It's hard not to be touched, in different ways, by the movie.
