GrizzlyMan

So I finally watched the documentary Grizzly Man tonight. I put it off for the longest, but it was a highly rewarding experience. In fact, one of the better documentaries I have seen. I suppose it is more commonly remembered as the movie about the guy that was eaten by a grizzly bear.

Timothy Treadwell was definitely "one-of-a-kind". An eccentric character, indeed. But as the movie went on, I found myself relating to his harmony-in-nature over horror-of-mankind personality. You could feel his sincerity. It must be noted that most of the movie is footage that he shot himself over the 13 year period that he lived with Grizzlies in Alaska (during the summers). So you get lots and lots of insight into the man's mind. He loses that mind in a few scenes. Surely a glimpse into his personal demons. After all, you have to be slightly off-kilter to live with grizzly bears!

I found it amazing that he spent 13 summers with them, and in very close quarters. Making it more amazing is the manner in which he died during his 13th summer.

He was going home at his usual time, but he had complications at the airport. Fed up with society, he said screw this, I am going back. So he goes back during the dangerous transition into fall/winter, and most of the bears he knew had left to hibernate. What was left were rogue outsider bears that he was not familiar with, that were basically starving. They needed to eat, and eat good, before hibernation. All of the smaller animals had packed it in, and the trout were gone. He runs into one of them at the wrong time, and is killed for food.

So back to the amazing part...had he not made this mistake of wearing out his seasonal welcome into October, how long could he have done this? There was debate over whether he was right or not...Whether a Thoreauian existence in the wild could be less dangerous, and more beautiful, than you believe. I think he was on to something. Dangerous carnivores, yes. But ravenous man-eaters, no (generally speaking). In the footage of his final days, the tone of his surroundings looks vastly different than the rest of the movie. The weather and atmosphere are stark, as if to warn any one that doesn't belong there to leave.

Also, I really liked a series of scenes when he had to deal with the reality of nature. He had an optimistic and harmonious view of nature. Everything beautiful and in balance. But reality sets in when he encounters the remains of a cub. Male bears will kill cubs so the mothers stop lactating, which frees them up to be mated with again. Then, there is a drought that prevents the trout from coming upstream to eat. He finds the remains of a cub that had been eaten by other bears for food. Lastly, he finds a baby fox half-eaten by wolves. (He was 'friends' with the foxes, and they followed him around!) I share similar harmonious views and can relate to the moments when horrors of nature reveal themselves. [I am sure all of us get those Discovery-Channel-feelings every now and then.] Something so beautiful, yet so terrible. Many will chalk it up to cruel Darwinian simplicity. But for me it is much more complex, one of many themes in a life-long spiritual journey. The abundance of creation, filled with hoaxes of cruelty.

After watching the movie, you really feel close to what he was doing. And when it is all over, the story of his death becomes much more visceral and sad.