Grizzly Man - Must See Documentary

This isn't what you'd call a formal review. It's more of a recommendation to check out this DVD I watched a couple of nights ago. Holy crap! That's all I can say. Grizzly Man is the story of Timothy Treadwell, a troubled guy who found salvation in spending thirteen consecutive summers in Alaska, unarmed and in the company of grizzly bears. The director of the film, Werner Herzog, uses actual footage taken by Treadwell during his last five years to string together a commentary on the man, his mission, and the relationship between human civilization and the wildness of nature.

Let me go ahead and spoil the thing by saying that Treadwell was eaten by a grizzly in 2003, along with his then girlfriend, who he, it appears, cajoled into staying longer than she really wanted to. (Talk about regrettable decisions.) Actually, I'm not really spoiling anything - Herzog brings it up right away. There were three things that had me glued to the screen the whole time the film was playing.

For starters, the fact is that what Treadwell did was flat-out unbelievable. He really did live right there in the wilderness with the bears, in their territory, and he interacted with them. (In some scenes, he actually got close enough to touch them on the nose.) Amazing to watch. As I said, he was a troubled guy. In grizzly bears, he found a cause that he could immerse himself in, thus taking the focus off his own demons. This is standard fanatic behavior - a la Hoffer's The True Believer .

As I was talking about this last night with a couple of people, we jokingly concluded that the story almost writes itself. Guy goes to Hollywood looking for fame and meaning in life, gets close but ultimately fails, spirals downhill with drugs, alcohol, and bad crowds, and...grizzly bears. Yes, that's pretty much how it happened. Treadwell, presumably on the back-end of some bender, somehow decided that the bears needed a protector, an advocate, if you will, so he made his way to Alaska and the rest is history.

The second thing that sucked me in was the way Herzog told the story. He was, by no means, a Timothy Treadwell cheerleader. He was genuinely trying to understand what was going with this guy. Did he just have a screw loose? Was he a sane, but courageous environmental activist? (I turned to my wife less than 30 seconds into the film and said, "This guy has obvious emotional problems. Of that much, I am already sure.") More compelling was the way Herzog juxtaposed the people who thought Treadwell had a positive impact on bears versus the people who said he hurt more than he helped. There were plenty of both, although those who said he did good things had that nutty, disconnected with reality kind of feel to them. I found the treatment of the subject very similar to the way Jon Krakauer wrote, Into The Wild - you know, that of the impartial journalist, just trying to make sense of things. In my view, that's the best way to deal with these kinds of stories - to take one side or the other eliminates the real value of telling them.

The last thing that kept me attentive throughout Grizzly Man was the suspense. Though Herzog tells you right away that Treadwell was killed in 2003, he leaves you wondering whether Treadwell ever really accomplished anything. After all, he wasn't a scientist, and he wasn't conducting any sort of research. He was spending his summers amongst the bears, supposedly protecting them from the humans who would seek to harm them. (But did they really need help? And if so, did he give it to them?) Then, in other seasons, he'd travel around to schools giving free presentations to kids about his experiences. I can only imagine what a treat it must have been to children to have a damned near bi-polar guy like Treadwell come and tell fantastic stories of living with and interacting with bears, and other animals. (He actually befriended a family of foxes - they would come right up to him and follow him around. Very cute.)

In the end, I'll leave it to you to decide whether he accomplished anything. No matter what, it's clear that he enjoyed what he was doing, and that he died doing something he loved. Nutty or not, there's something to be said for that. My interest, however, is piqued most by the relationship between people like Treadwell and reality.

Being a guy who didn't find himself living the life he expected, Treadwell turned to whatever he could to cope. First, it was alcohol and drugs. Eventually, it ended up being bears. He had this vision of nature as being something that was not ugly like human civilization. His vision of nature was filled with egalitarian beauty, with justice and respect for all life forms. You really get a sense of this when you watch the scenes he filmed. At times, he gushes so much about his love for the animals that you feel certain he's either on ecstasy or he's nuts. Oh course, reality inevitably crashes in, shattering his illusions, if only for a while. (He finds the severed claw of a bear cub and realizes that the bears have eaten one of their own. Talk about red in tooth and claw!) I love to see the look on this face at times like this. It's that bewildered look, the one that says, "This just doesn't add up." I don't love it because I'm a sadist. I love it because it reinforces one of my most prized axioms - reality will ALWAYS have her way with you.

Ultimately, I came away from this film with an added appreciation for how much humans can accomplish when they want to. Thirteen summers, a stone's throw from ferocious grizzly bears, staring and shouting them down when confronted, and no gun. Astounding! At the same time, I came away feeling more concrete about the idea that when life sucks, you have to stare it down, figure it out, and turn it around. You can't run out in the woods where all your problems don't exist and expect that all will be well. You'll eventually get eaten by a freaking bear.