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Grizzly Man (2005)
I'm intrigued and angry, but NOT devastated
The plot outline says "A devastating and heartrending take on grizzly bear activists Timothy Treadwell and Amie Huguenard, who were killed in October of 2003 while living among grizzlies in Alaska." This is a terrible way to sum up this film. I was in now way devastated, and "heartrending" is just way inaccurate. At the end of this film, I felt nothing (if that sounds completely awful, I'm sorry, but it's honest) for Timothy Treadwell or for all of the people who were close to him and supported him and were so saddened by his death. In fact, the interviewee I found myself relating to the most when it was all over was the one who mentioned that perhaps Timothy was mentally retarded. I think that's a bit of a stretch, but the man was definitely troubled and that is what allowed Herzog to take the footage and make such an interesting film. We see candid moments that were in no way intended for an audience, and through these scenes, we are able to see that Timothy Treadwell was truly an unhappy person who had given himself a very false (however elaborate) sense of self-worth. He is absolutely not protecting these animals in any way. In fact, the one time we see any type of threat to the bears, Timothy hides and films it but states that he doesn't want to give himself away. I can guarantee you that if I ever saw anyone throwing rocks (and quite large ones at that) at a loved one, the last thing I would do would be to hide in a bush while I whispered into a mic about how awful it was. I could be wrong here (I've never been anywhere near a wild bear), but it seems to me that it could possibly be because of someone like Timothy that the bear was even comfortable getting that close to the men. I really can't feel sorry for him or any of those who were greatly saddened by his death but that also supported what he was doing. Aren't we all taught at a young age to keep distance from wildlife so as not to allow them to become too comfortable in close proximity to humans? ...For both the safety of the animals and ourselves? I know I learned it at a very young age and while I may not have perfectly understood it then, I later came to understand that it was extremely important. The curator of the museum states that the natives have adhered to that rule for 7,000 years. Timothy was the intruder, having gone against this. He in no way helped or protected these animals as he claimed to be doing. With of course the exception of the rain that he was able to bring by screaming to "Christ Man", Allah, and "Hindu Floaty Thing" demanding that the give the animals some water. (What an ass!!) It was around this part in the film that we see also that he can't understand / handle that this is how the natural order of things has worked for a good long time now. I chose not to make any comment on the girlfriend that died with him, because I'm not real sure about how I felt about her being with him. This is an excellent film that chronicles the breakdown of a man as he goes to outrageous measures to make himself "happy". He seemed to be a very u8nhappy person, and while it is a shame that he couldn't have been helped rather than wasting years of his life while also breaking the most important rule between man and wildlife, I truly felt no "devastation" or "heartrending". Herzog has done an excellent job of taking the 100+ hours of footage and basically showing it for what it is. Nothing says it better than Herzog's commentary during the scene about 10 minutes from the end where we see a bear smelling Timothy's scent in the air.