A Grizzly Story

Grizzly Man
--film review--

Timothy Treadwell eerily repeats his willingness to sacrifice his life to a camera months before grizzly bears maul and kill him and his girlfriend in Alaska.

“I will die for these animals. I will die for these animals,” Treadwell said.

“Grizzly Man,” the latest film from award-winning director Werner Herzog, was featured at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year where it won the Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize.

The docudrama combines interviews with family and friends of Treadwell, as well as footage from Treadwell’s many forays through the “Grizzly Maze.” Herzog’s narration opens up the life of Treadwell and raises numerous questions about human beings and their relationship with the natural world. There is much more to the film than what is on the surface. By delving into Treadwell’s past, the audience is able to uncover just what it is that led him to such a fascinating life and untimely death.

Treadwell grew up as a normal boy on the east coast. He had a proclivity to animals and wildlife at a young age.

Attending Bradley on a swimming scholarship in the ‘70s, he soon became involved with drugs and alcohol. Treadwell dropped out of college and moved to California.

A failed acting career and lack of opportunities with surfboarding led him down a road of alcohol abuse.

After cleaning up, he discovered that with such a lack of interest in humanity, the only option he saw was to leave modern society and habituate with the wildlife. Herzog comments that there was a desire in him to leave his humanness entirely.

Treadwell acts as if he is a bear several times throughout the film. Many friends comment that he would act like a bear on a daily basis, often barking and walking like a bear.

The stunning cinematography and aerial views of the Alaskan landscape are beautiful. It is here that Treadwell camped every summer amongst the wildlife.

He brought his girlfriend Amie Huguenard on his last journey into the wild. She is only seen three times in the 100 hours of Treadwell’s footage. According to friends, she was afraid of bears and yet died by his side when an elderly bear killed and ate them both.

Furthermore, Treadwell did almost nothing for profit.

He was simply campaigning for awareness. He took his job so seriously that he never asked for payment. In fact, his friends said he was one of the poorest people they knew.

Yet, his work brought about criticism from many groups of people.

Alaskan natives, for example, were disgusted by Treadwell’s behavior. By living with the bears, they thought he breached an invisible boundary no human should cross.

Letters accuse him of being an eco-religious stereotypical environmentalist. One in particular that a friend shares with Herzog says a bear diet should consist of liberals and Democrats who only care about preserving the wildlife.

But beyond the motive speculation and controversy is a beautiful story and an even more beautiful film, however tragic.

The film does more than document the heartbreaking end of two young people’s lives. It brings Treadwell’s dark inner turmoil and personal demons to light.

However fanatical or senseless he may seem, one cannot deny Treadwell died doing what he loved.

The last few months of Treadwell’s life in “Grizzly Man” are more compelling than any big-budget drama Hollywood churned out this year.