Wernor Herzog’s documentary film Grizzly Man tells the story of Timothy Treadwell, an amateur grizzly bear expert and filmmaker who spent thirteen summers living among wild bears in Alaska’s national parks.
Treadwell closely documented his often dangerous encounters with the bears which includes petting and swimming with the grizzlies- begging the question, is this guy a true expert ecologist on a sincere mission to save the grizzlies and their environment or a megalomaniac with a death wish? Herzog is at turns sympathetic and scathing which leads one to conclude that Treadwell is actually far more complicated a figure to fall into either of those camps.
Psychological Portrait of Timothy Treadwell
In often cloying, teary-eyed soliloquies touting the majesty of the grizzlies and his own efforts to save them, Treadwell reveals a naïve romanticizing of wild nature and a one-man-saving-the-world egotism. Through confessional close-up footage and interviews with loved ones, we are clued in to this man’s troubles with women and alcoholism, and his subsequent belief that the bears have saved him from addiction and despair.
Treadwell is clearly troubled, narcissistic, and more than a little bit paranoid, but we are left to decide if these traits are enough to dismiss his project altogether or merely question his authenticity. The challenge, here, is to scratch the surface of Treadwell's unlikeable personality and presentation and find the parts of his arguments that just might be compelling.
Death of a Protagonist
Early on in the film, we learn that Treadwell was eventually killed and eaten by a bear along with his girlfriend, Amie Huguenard. In revealing the narrative conclusion right from the start, Herzog beckons the viewer to grapple with the larger issues at hand. Is it indeed noble to die for one’s beliefs? Are our most deeply held convictions and passions merely a misguided attempt to conceal our own flaws and failings? What do we risk by maintaining the divide between the wild and civilization?
Toward the end of the film, Herzog asserts that in the bear’s stare he sees “only the half-bored interest in food” and not the friend- even the savior- that Treadwell sees in the grizzlies. Herzog is more enamored by Treadwell the Filmmaker rather than Treadwell the Eco Warrior, finding the images themselves much more compelling than the accompanying monologues that wax poetic about the perfect harmony of the wild.
Herzog’s Grizzly Man succeeds not only as a captivating look at one lost man’s journey for a purpose and sense of belonging, but also as a provocative and engaging summons to look at our own motivations and actions – critically and rigorously.
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