[pct-l] "Grizzly Man" on TV tonight

[wayneskraft at comcast.net (Wayne Kraft)]

I watched it, too.  It was definitely a cinematic study of a bipolar,  
paranoid, addictive personality rather than bears.  I suppose  
studying such personalities is valuable to the extent that it might  
enable us to bring cure or comfort to such tortured souls, but  
Herzog's "study" of Treadwell was no more scientific or useful than  
Treadwell's "study" of Grizzlies. In fact there seems to be a  
striking parallel between Herzog's rapt fascination with Treadwell  
and Treadwell's similar fixation on the Grizzlies.  Likewise, Herzog  
seemed to insert himself into this film in somewhat the same way  
Treadwell featured himself in his footage.  Herzog was not obtrusive  
exactly, but how many director's appear at all in their films?   
Herzog found himself on screen quite a bit here.  The irony of it  
seemed obvious enough to me that I concluded that it could not have  
been unintentional.

I was also puzzled by what people thought Treadwell was  
"protecting."  I am willing to agree that Treadwell thought he was  
protecting the bears from something, but he was crazy. The bears are  
already protected by government regulation and their own isolation.   
Treadwell violated both with impunity.  The only danger attributable  
to the outside world identified in the film was that "poachers" were  
killing the bears. The official position was that poaching was not a  
significant problem here.  In the epilogue, Herzog allowed two of  
Treadwell's friends to gather around a grizzly carcass and claim that  
the dead bear and others had been killed by poachers since  
Treadwell's death, but Herzog presented this as the flimsiest of  
speculations.  Was there any actual evidence of the cause of this  
bear's death, that other bears had died and, if so, what had caused  
their deaths?  Presumably, if there was even a shred of evidence to  
show that Treadwell's absence has resulted in a poaching epidemic,  
Herzog would have presented it.  Yet people were willing to  
contribute financially to Treadwell's endeavor and allow him to make  
presentations to impressionable children without a shred of proof  
that anything of value was being accomplished. It always amazes me  
how easy it is to get people to take their place in the Koolaid line.

So Treadwell failed to fascinate me and I found myself trying to see  
around this blonde buffoon for a look at the bears.  Ultimately, I  
have to agree with Herzog and
Doc Holliday in his post that the Grizzly bears, while starkly  
beautiful animals, are creatures best left the heck alone.  Now, the  
foxes on the other hand, the foxes are another story.  Oh, what a  
fine thing it would be to have a fox for your friend!  Does anyone  
know if there is a fox sanctuary somewhere?  I could go there and  
befriend them and film them and become their protector.  Then someone  
could make a film about me.  The Fox Man.  I could travel the globe  
spreading cayenne pepper on the ground in front of the dogs in the  
fox hunts, springing foxes from traps and fox ranches and sneaking  
foxes into hen houses. Oh, what a life it would be!

Wayne Kraft





On Feb 4, 2006, at 10:41 AM, Scott Herriott wrote:

> Doc Holiday wrote:
>
> <Not really! I watched this last night, and was quite
> dissapointed. I
> expected to see a documentary about grizzly bears, and
> instead was
> assaulted by a documentary of a self aggrandizing,
> mis-guided, self
> absorbing, naive young man who pushed the boundaries
> of human interaction with a
> very wild and dangerous animal.>
>
>
> Well, if I guess it was supposed to be exclusively
> about grizzly bears they may have called it "Grizzly
> Bear" instead of "Grizzly Man".  The film's focus WAS
> Treadwell and, as you correctly point out, his "self
> aggrandizing, mis-guided" attempt at what he was doing
> up in Alaska.  But I also felt it had, as the director
> Werner Herzog points out in the film, some
> extraordinary footage of grizzlies, probably only
> attainable by what Treadwell was doing, however
> misguided and ultimately tragic it turned out to be.
>
>
> Squatch
> www.walkpct.com
>
>
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