Grizzly Man

-Image corresponding to Treadwell's notion on bears; seeing them in light of their peaceful, serene side.

Grizzly Man...Ggggrrrr... Where exactly should I begin? First, as a little side note, I must mention how deeply moved and inspired I was after watching this spectacular masterpiece. When I refer to this film as a masterpiece, I am specifically speaking about Timothy Treadwell’s spontaneity, incredibly risky behavior and undying love for Grizzly bears. In my opinion, the editing side of things were far from impressive, but rather manipulative and degrading. Herzog seemingly framed Treadwell’s profound curiosity and love towards these creatures as a complete and utter joke. Although, Treadwell’s behavior is by mainstream standards less than normal, who are we really to judge him or his passions? There are plenty of people who are equally motivated and encapsulated by politics, professional aspirations or what have you-that figuratively live and breath money, but strangely enough they are not the ones labeled as disillusioned extremists. Personally, I think there is a deeper embedded message here that isn’t being confronted.

In another class, I am learning how people living in the system world deploy instrumental logic/rationality to discredit the values of those who oppose their views/goals by framing them as irrational and uncritical. And I think this is the case in this film. In the article “Beyond the Limits”, Treadwell is labeled as a “beach bum, self-dramatizer with a thirst for abject camera exposure” and his studies/observations deemed unworthy because he does not draw on scientific research. Instead of Treadwell's efforts being recognized as beneficial (by helping scientists to understand these creatures patterns, social/mating/eating habits in a more in depth light-which is indeed crucial in terms of animal conservation and the survival of their species), he is seen as an extremist, unworthy of political attention. Tredwell’s ultimate goal was more or less to protect Grizzly bears and bring about some general understanding about there way of life…maybe in hopes of sending the message that these bears need a lot of terrain and greatly depend on the functionality of their delicate ecosystem to survive. No mention of this was ever clearly mentioned, but rather the concluding point was that the Grizzly who killed Treadwell and his companion was in the end killed-which is entirely contradictive to what Treadwell would have wanted. No over-arching message was conveyed about the alarming state that these bears are living in. Rather the focal point of the film was Treadwell himself, along with his eccentricities, and personal quirks, which for the most part removes any possible emphasis on the BEARS themselves-which are OBVIOUSLY the focal point of Treadwell's study. Simply put, depictions of Grizzly bears were framed within an unrealistic light by depicting them in perfect living conditions-free from poachers, environmental threats and land excavation. The editor failed to mention, or rather include any information concerning the circumstances these bears are facing, their status in the wild, what threatens there habitat and what we can do as individuals to play a part in protecting them, which arguably is what Treadwell would have wanted. As you can probably tell by his website, Treadwell was proactive and dedicated to building research to protect the entire species, which seems to have been overlooked in this documentary. So, I must ask now, how exactly is society supposed to recognize that there is a problem and work to solve it, if there is no information about the problems Grizzly's are facing? The dieing wish of Treadwell would have probably been to shed some critical light and understandings on bears, most definately wanting his footage to go towards that purpose.

Overall, I think that Treadwell's intentions and goals as a animal conservationists were overlooked in this documentary. I think that there was too much emphasis on Treadwell's eccentricities and not enough on what is critically important about Grizzly's themselves (common in news and popular culture). Herzog failed, as a directed, to capture the true importance of Treadwell's studies.



-Photo capturing the Vicious, Aggressive, Dangerous aspect of bears, which is seemingly the message that Hertzog was trying to convey.