New Flash - Living With Bears is Dangerous

So I love bears. I think they cute and fierce and live in these very interesting family units. But you couldn't pay me a zillion dollars to go live in a bear preserve, as amateur grizzly bear expert and wildlife preservationist Timothy Treadwell did for 13 years. GRIZZLY MAN is Werner Herzog documentry about Treadwell's tragic story, but it is more like a conversation than a history, as Herzog has some fundamental disagreements with his 'protagonists' ideas concerning nature. It's not revealing any big surprise to tell you Treadwell gets eaten by a bear, it's the whole reason behind the film. All the footage of he and the bears was shot during his 13 summers in Alaska, sometimes hand held, sometimes on a tripod so Timothy sould interact on camera with the bears. Herzog interviews other preservationists, friends and family of Treadwell in an attempt to put Treadwell's self-given mission is perspective. He also provides his own analysis of the thousands of hours of film and audio he studied.

Timothy Treadwell was certainly crazy. His on-going commentary with the camera is often hilarious but at other times frightening. I found myself a little uncomfortable in the theater watching the film, not really for the subject matter, but because of the reactions of the people around me. Don't get me wrong, there are many moments the film and Treadwell are very funny, but there are certainly other sequences that are so sad and honest and beautiful that I didn't understand people near me laughing. They were laughing at him - as in look at the retarded kid, lets all laugh at him. Treadwell suffered from severe manic depression, and wouldn't take his medication. He could not find the peace in the world of humans that he found in the world of the bears. He loves the bears. And he tells them, and the camera. Why do we laugh at that? I don't know. But it ruined my experience with this movie, and it made me hate my fellow man just a little bit more. Maybe I got to feel just a little bit of the misanthropy Treadwell felt.

I recommend GRIZZLY MAN for anyone who loves Animal Planet, Documentries, Bears, and hearing really strong german accents (Herzog's). Rick's Rating - B