Review Of The Movie Grizzly Man
The documentary Grizzly Man directed by Werner Herzog explicitly illustrate the life of Timothy Treadwell – a naturalist who managed to spend 13 years living closest to the grizzly bears living in the wilderness of Alaska, though this wilderness was managed by the Alaska’s Katmai National Park and Preserve. Treadwell's major success in documenting the life bears and illustrating himself as a protector of the nature lies in his numerous naturalistic videos if Alaska’s Wildlife and nature. The documentary rightfully deserves its accolades and its popularity among the viewers due to the fact that it offers a mixture of feelings and experiences varying from hilarious and beautiful to poignant and even horrifying. Despite the fact that Treadwell was not an experienced and well-equipped film-maker, his tapes could have made him a star among the documentary directors, as the dramatic shots of bears and himself giving various speeches about himself, the bears and the nature offer unforgettable experience to the viewers. Therefore, it might be argued that this movie needs to b watched at least once for the viewers to understand the beauty of the nature, figure out the motifs of a person willing to spend his life among wild animals and decide whether he was a genius naturalist and wildlife protector or a fanatic madman throwing his life away.
Until 2003, when he and his girlfriend were killed by one of the wild bears, Threadwell has been spending each summer camping near the bears and shooting videos about them and himself. Obviously, that contradicted all the safety measures and regulations set up by the U.S. part rangers; however, his desire to show himself interacting with the bears and the other animals was stronger than those. He seemed to be friend the bears and started giving them names like Sgt. Brown and Mr. Chocolate; additionally, trying to interact with them because he was also very passionate about gaining the respect of bears for his courage.
Despite the fact that his mission in the movie is depicted as providing education about the bears and the nature along with protecting them, the actual footage does not explicitly show that. One of the vial scenes proving that is Treadwell's close-up of the sleeping bumble-bee, who he thought was dead. Herzog , as a director of the movie, perfectly balances Treadwell's expressiveness and sometimes his eccentricity of a passionate naturalist with rather cold, unemotional and even cynical narrative of Herzog. The movie clearly shows that Treadwell's passion was not supported by any scholarly knowledge about the nature and the bears, in particular, which has arguably become one of the reasons of his horrific demise. As a result, the viewers get a mixed feeling regarding bears killing and eating both Treadwell and his girlfriend due to the fact that it is clearly understood that his carelessness, lack of cautiousness and full experience in protecting himself from the wild animals would eventually lead to such outcome. However, because of Treadwell's strong and interesting personality and his clearly positive attitude towards the hostility of the wildlife make everyone feel sorry for his death, nonetheless.
The gorgeous naturalistic scenery of Alaskan nature combined with always cheerful personality of Treadwell also leave an impression of the movie depicting perfectly balanced picture of the wildlife that can be attractive and highly dangerous at the same time. And this experience is even further complemented by the conflicted feelings regarding the actions and destiny of Treadwell being reckless and entertaining, narcissistic and loving bears with all his heart, educating people about the bears’ behavior and trying to protect them in already governmentally monitored area. This movie provides a plethora of different emotions and because of this, it definitely needs to be watched to shape your own perception of Treadwell.
