Grizzly Man

[amanda]

official site:
www.grizzlymanmovie.com/grizzly.html

trailer:
www.apple.com/trailers/lions_gate/grizzly_man/medium.html

review:
www.nytimes.com/2005/08/12/movies/12griz.html?th&emc=th

wernerherzog.com/main/index.htm

Film Synopsis:
Filmmaker Werner Herzog adds another real-life character to his growing pantheon of people who walk a fine line between visionary genius and madness in this documentary. Timothy Treadwell was a self-styled authority on bears who, starting in 1990, would spend as much time as possible each year in Alaska, camping out near a grizzly bear habitat. While Treadwell claimed to love the bears and felt as one with them, he had no formal training in their behavior, and while familiarizing himself with the creatures he would walk within a few feet of them with a video camera in hand. To many, Treadwell seemed part man of nature, part conjuror, and part self-promotion expert, but the part that guided his kinship with the bears failed him in 2003, when he and his girlfriend were killed in a grizzly attack. Treadwell shot hundreds of hours of footage of himself and the grizzlies, and Herzog has used this footage as the core of Grizzly Man, a documentary look at Treadwell's life and death, while also including interviews with people who knew him, animal experts, and scientists. Acclaimed British guitarist Richard Thompson composed and performed the film's musical score. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

[amanda]

Grizzly Man will be on the Discovery Channel tonight at 8pm ET/PT and again tomorrow night - same bat time, same bat channel.

dsc.discovery.com/convergence/grizzlyman/grizzlyman.html?source=adbanners

[Jeff]

3 hours of Timothy Treadwell. Damn, this film is repetitive! And having to watch all those tedious commercials didn’t help…

My view: Timothy was arrogant, misguided, and likeable. Nothing he did made him deserving of death. The guy who said otherwise pissed me off the most.

I think my mom is a lot like Timothy. When she tries to help others the only way she can think to do it is to live with them, to become them a little bit. I’ve never understood this impulse. I always think of Jesus and the tax collectors or prostitutes. He seems to be a heightening of consciousness not a lessening. He seems even holier around those he tries to help. Maybe it is because he is not seeking anything in return. Jesus doesn’t need validation or even friendship. He gives almost without any real connection to those he helps. Not that he would reject connection; just that it isn’t required. Every time I saw Timothy reach out to touch the bears I felt it was out of some strange personal need. That need didn’t help the bears and I don’t think it helped him.

Which leads me to a thought: I happened to watch a documentary last night called Stevie ( www.imdb.com/title/tt0334416/ ), by Steve James, the director of Hoop Dreams. Stevie is about a mentor (James) that attempts to reconnect with one of the “little brothers” assigned to him, only to find out that the little brother, Stevie Fielding, has been accused of child molestation. But more than that, Stevie is a lonely guy who can’t hold a job, has few real friends, and doesn’t know how to behave in ANY social situations. James and everyone else who had an influence on Stevie’s life are caught in a strange kind of trap. On one hand, they want to see Stevie as something they did not help to directly create. They say things like, “If only I had stuck around, I could have helped him make better choices.” They seem convinced that their influence was always good, and the worst thing that they did was leave. On the other hand they have to assure Stevie that the connections he has with them are real, that despite the fact that they left they really cared and always thought of him. The bind only arises because there are needs here besides Stevie’s and they sometimes dominate the relationships he has.

As I watched Grizzly Man I thought that Stevie was a lot like the bears. He is a thing that could be a cause, and he is also violent in the same ways that violence has been done to him. Stevie will probably never change, just as the bears won’t. He really doesn’t have to tools to do so. But like the bears, he needs help, too.

I think the pattern of Treadwell and my mom is not a good one to help those we care about.