Grizzly Man

[Hawkeye The Noo]

I just rented the dvd grizzly man about the story of Timothy Treadwell who lived with grizzlies for 13 years and was then killed by one. It is a fasinating watch with excellent views. He was a unique individual who was on the line of genius vs insanity.

It is worth a watch. I would rate it at 6 out of 10. I would not buy it but would watch it twice.

Jamie

 

[andyn]

He was a unique individual who was on the line of genius vs insanity.

Jamie

Thats certainly one way of putting it. I think on the line of insanity vs paranoia is another.

Very weird bloke...should never have been allowed out there even though he captured some amazing grizzly footage. In my opinion he achieved to cause more damage than good.

Good film though overall.

 

[Marts]

Worth watching I agree. He really was asking for it though!

Funnily the main comment I got from friends who watched it was that he was the campest straight man they'd ever seen. They also thought that the bears probably ignored him for so long because they plainly thought he was some kind of escaped care in the community type and that he would likely give them indigestion

 

[C_Claycomb]

I rented it a couple weeks ago and couldn't get more than about 30 minutes into it. Yes, great footage of him habituating bears to human presense, but I found him just SO irritating

I guess that I switched off before learning what exactly he was trying to protect the bears from.

 

[Abbe Osram]

I saw the movie and liked it as a documentary. He as a person was true to himself. What I liked on him was that he put feet to his believe. It costed him his life, so what? Why should we bother? He at least did what he believed in.
There are too many talkers out who do nothing and keep dreaming. I like people who put feet to their believes and needs.

But!

After I put this view about him forth, I want to balance it a bit.
In my account he was projecting his need for a meaningfull life and his need for acceptence onto the bears. In that way he missused the animals for his personal lacks in life.

He created the character Timothy Treadwell, found the bears and projected a false hopefull picture onto them and paid the price for it. (Even the bears paid a high price too)

His views are nuts concerning bears, I dont understand how someone could follow him. Its sad that his girlfriend died too but on the other hand she had reasons too why she was there, nobody dragged her into the bush. What is sad about her case is that she noticed in the end that he was selfdistructing and felt that she wanted to leave him but sticked it out with him anyhow.

All in all is a great movie if you like to study human behaviour. One can enjoy great animal sequences and nature shots only make sure you dont copy his bevhaviour around bears.

cheers
Abbe

 

[RovingArcher]

What killed him was the fact that he stayed later than usual and the bears that were accustomed to him had left the area and a rogue had moved in, which is the bear that killed him and his friend.

I couldn't understand his need to be with the bears in the first place. He wanted to protect the bear that lived in a protected area from humans, yet he was helping them to lose their fear of humans with his very presence.

And he was definitely a weird dude, but like Abbe pointed out, he was living his dream and that sometimes takes more courage than living with a group of grizzlies.

 

[neo_wales2000]

Timothy Treadwell , saw the dvd last week, what a prize prat of a man, an awful way for him and his partner to die, but I bet the returning bears were pleased with the peace and quiet.

 

[Carcajou Garou]

An unfortunate by product of his and her demise was at 3 bears were killed near the attack area, they are not sure if any had indeed killed or just happened to have fed on the bodies. Again my brothers loose because of misguided ideology. He was there to bring understanding about bears wasn't he????????????

 

[Bear Claw Chris Lappe]

I highly recommend both of these books about Tim Treadwell.

The Grizzly Maze: Timothy Treadwell's Fatal Obsession with Alaskan Bears by Nick Jans

Death in the Grizzly Maze : The Timothy Treadwell Story by Mike Lapinski

Tim Treadwell was nothing more than a mentally unbalanced fool, that not only got himself killed, but an innocent young woman and two bears as well.

He did not study bears, he harrassed them with a camera to glorify himself. Ask any compentent animal researcher and they will tell you that to study wildlife, the point is to NOT interact with the animals, but instead make every effort to prevent them from knowing they are being observed.

Treadwell violated EVERY rule of wildlife biological research and nothing of any scientific value has been learned by his antics.

 

[Wayne]

Although his methodo;gy as a research maybe in question he is not the first to interact with animals under their study, Diane Fossy and the lady that studying Frodo the chimp for example have had their motives and methods questioned.

This guy lived a life of his own choosing and deid as a result. How many of us even attempt to folllow our dreams.

I don't agree with the killing of the bears. He didn't shoot them he was killed by them. Others made the choice to execute the bears for following their natural behaviour.

I have met a few large carnivore ecologists that spend their lives studying bears and wolves. Each has their own view on managing predator human interaction.

If nothing else the life and death of Timothy Treadwell has helped to provoke debate.

 

[OldJimbo]

I don't agree with the killing of the bears. He didn't shoot them he was killed by them. Others made the choice to execute the bears for following their natural behaviour.

He played with bears in a park while promoting the notion that he was protecting them. Generally it's not the bears in the park that need protecting. In parks there are rules on feeding bears because that usually leads to attack - and then the bear has to be shot because it may well go after other humans. Everyone over here knows that if a bear is provoked to attack, it'll have to be killed.

I think that we've seen every sort of stupidity and craziness - even the mother who smeared honey on her kid's hand so that she could get a nice picture of the bear licking it off. I guess we can all guess where that ended. Timmie's movie making belongs in that category.

 

[Abbe Osram]

Talking about the guy we can take two roads. First we talk about how his behavior was with bears and what we can learn from it.
I think that this is easily covered: His behaviour was nuts, harmfull to himself, bears and other humans. Period.

BUT

talking about a person living out his believe and paying the price for his conviction that is another story for me. That is the thing I enjoid mostly in the movie. Before we judge the guy, please take a minute, lean back and think about your own life. Maybe you sit in an office looking out of the window and dream about how wonderfull it would be to live the life of a hunter, while you and your co-workers are pushed to the limits working in that stupid company you see yourself living the life of a free man. You might even have political views about it, are very involved here in disscussion about survival of the fittest etc etc.
But the difference between Timothy and you are: He would go and live the life until it kills him and you still sit in your office waiting for you big day of freedom to come next weekend when you meet up with some friends, sitting around the fire debating if it is possible to survive with your bushcraftskills the end of days while all the ignorant humans around you would perish.

Please understand me right, I am not attacking anyone here. I am exactly the same, a dreamer, a talker, a office rat.

BUT

I want to see and respect people who are brave enough to dare, even if it cost them their live. That is the respect I give to this nuts guy. Do I learn something from him while being out here in the bush. No!!! He was nuts. If I see a Bear I get my shotgun ready and see that I sneak off in the oposite direction. I hate the thought meeting a bear while hunting birds. Still I respect that boy.

cheers
Abbe

 

[Wayne]

I share Abbes resect for people attempting to live their dreams. Although this guy was stupid and paid the price. He did get out of his comfort zone and walk the walk.

How many people here dream about a different life yet continue to live the same surban lifestyle chasing a bigger mortage and bigger car?

Lets not condone irrational and down right dangerous behaviour. We can also offer qualified respect to those that push the envelope of acheivement and endurance in the pursiut of their dreams.

The thread on rescue is another example of us 'outdoor folk' judging our peers. We all were once unskilled and lacking in experience. We trained and learnt from people that gave skills and experiences freely.

Lets spend more time helping to promote best practice and learn from others mistakes without resorting to being overtly judgemental.

 

[falling rain]

I share Abbes resect for people attempting to live their dreams. Although this guy was stupid and paid the price. He did get out of his comfort zone and walk the walk.

How many people here dream about a different life yet continue to live the same surban lifestyle chasing a bigger mortage and bigger car?

Lets not condone irrational and down right dangerous behaviour. We can also offer qualified respect to those that push the envelope of acheivement and endurance in the pursiut of their dreams.

The thread on rescue is another example of us 'outdoor folk' judging our peers. We all were once unskilled and lacking in experience. We trained and learnt from people that gave skills and experiences freely.

Lets spend more time helping to promote best practice and learn from others mistakes without resorting to being overtly judgemental.

Well put Wayne. Humility is a good virtue to have and remembering we all started somewhere, and don't know it all, is worth taking the time to do. I do think though that some people have more common sense than others. We've all made mistakes and thought 'I should have done that a bit different' but sometimes some folks make HUGE mistakes and they have clearly not even given their actions consequences upon themselves and others the slightest thought. And there's the difference. I'm not referring to Grizzly man here, I'm just saying in general.

There is a commercial on TV at the moment that shows a man spraying his VW van with a power hose and the water is going all over the neighbourhood all over other people who are going about their chores of painting fences etc. and the man spraying his van is either thick or ignorant because he says quite cheerfully good morning to a passerby as if nothings happening. The commercial is for the VW van and mentions that they also do cars. Well maybe it's me who's thick and am missing something, but this would tell me that ignorant people buy VW vans.( not generalising here. Just some ) I really can't see what message the advertising company are trying to say with such a plainly ignorant twit spraying his van. It would make me not want to buy one !. - What I'm trying to say is although of course I know it's only a commercial, people like this are really out there. Ignorant, rude, no common sense, thick or all of the above.

 

[OldJimbo]

I wish that I could see some positive aspect such as living out dreams, but i fail miserably in this case. To me he has to remain someone who went camping and financed his trips and ego at the price of bears.
Just north of here at Hyder Alaska, there are platforms where thousands of people have stood and watched black and grizzlies feeding on salmon. The bears there could have a tourist snack with one jump but they don't. Just south of here, the grizzlies tend to be more aggressive and so standing around watching those isn't advised. Here the grizzlies are polite and well mannered in my experience, and a good thing too since I've had chance meetings at a distance of feet. I do worry about what Timothy's movies portray about bears just as I worry about people transfering their Hyder bear watching experiences to other groups of bears. I can only see bad things coming out of that.

But I do have people who I look up to. Dick Proeneke gave up a good job as a diesel mechanic to live in the wilderness and create a legacy. I knew Tommy Tomkins who gave up a successful career to go make movies about wildlife. Those guys took far greater risks than Timothy, since they were alone and isolated, but on a basic level I find that they left behind more that is meaningful to me.