On Grizzly Man

Overall, I enjoyed the documentary very much. However I cannot say that I am a very big fan of Timothy Treadwell. To me he seemed very "fake" and was using the wilderness as an escape from human society. I felt more strongly about this as the film went on. Growing up, Timothy didn’t seem to be very interested in animals. He was a swimmer in High School and then continued to swim in college on a scholarship. When he hurt his back, he dropped out and then started using drugs. After this Treadwell was an unsuccessful actor and an alcoholic. At this point he changed his name, started talking with an accent, and made up a fake childhood story. All of a sudden he was obsessed with animals and wanted to save them. I’m not saying that Treadwell doesn’t love animals I just think it is very random. Throughout this documentary it shows Treadwell having a warped sense of nature. He makes it out to be this perfect lifestyle when in reality it is not. He treats wild beasts such as bears and fox as domesticated house pets. I give him props for doing what he did, but as the saying goes: “you mess with the bull, you get the horns.” It was only a matter of time until Treadwell crossed the line with one of the bears. In his commentary, Herzog calls out Treadwell’s naïve perspectives on nature and states some of his own opinions.