Blog 12-Grizzly Man

After watching the first part of the film, Grizzly Man, Timothy Treadwell is documenting bears in their natural habitats and his interactions with them. Throughout the film, he shows the audience the harmless side of the bears and even names them. One was called Mr. Chocolate, and he names a fox, Spirit the Fox. He expresses his love for the bears throughout the film and says that he would even die for them. He does this in order to raise awareness of bear protection and is accompanied by his girlfriend as well on some expeditions. The film also explores the feelings of those that he knew, such as the helicopter pilot that would take him to the bears habitat.

However, many critics have called him crazy due to how up close and personal he gets with these bears. Others have called him brave and ambitious for the cause he is representing. Many dislike that he treats them as you would a home pet. That he has spent so much time with them that he has forgotten that he is dealing with wild animals. I for one find myself in the middle. On one side, its great that he is capturing these bears in their natural habitat and using basic equipment as opposed to the National Geographic Channel. They make the documentaries as if they were a movie almost and not as real. He is definitely brave to get as close as he did to them in order to get better shots. However, the amount of interaction he had with them is what I feel led to his ultimate demise.

By actually calling out to them, giving them names, and hitting them on the nose, I feel that he tried to get too close to them. Perhaps he was trying to show the public how harmless these animals are but in reality, he didn't realize how much control he had over them. As wild bears, they are not used to human contact and are of course curious to see what Timothy was up to. They weren't as quickly to attack him because they weren't threatened by his presence. I feel that due to Timothy's love for the bears and his want to be as close to them as he can, perhaps even to act like one, he lost sight that he was dealing with wild animals that will attack if need to for their own protection. Therefore, he didn't limit his interactions with them as much as he was supposed to in order to keep them relaxed. Any wrong move and it could have caused these bears to become angry. His love and passion for the bears and nature itself is what caused his judgement to be skewed and is what therefore perhaps led to his and his girlfriend's tragic death.

However, his cause is not so easily forgotten. He is one of the few who try to go out and show what nature really is. Who tries to defend it and raise awareness of what we as humans are destroying at times. That he and his girlfriend rest in peace and that their cause lives on.