Sarah says:
Excuse the photo, I was really tired last night after a very lovely weekend and needed a good yawn. Heidi and I went to the movies last night and saw Werner Herzog’s film Grizzly Man about Bear “protector” Timothy Treadwell .
It was a good film to see, especially knowing that yet another famous animal documenter Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Guy, was just killed filming stingrays. The film made me “happy” that there are these people in the world who take chances like this and really live and die for the animals they want to document and protect. Most of us would be too afraid, and rightly so. These people appear nutty and often surround themselves by other seemingly nutty people – there were a lot in the film last night. But it is a whole other world that none of us can even get close to understanding. Anyone with such a strong passion and cause inevitably gets misunderstood a lot and stirs up controversy. It gives those watching mixed feelings about what this person is doing. But these are noble causes that’s for certain and I am glad somebody is fighting them even if it means dying because of them. It wasn’t surprising to see that Timothy Treadwell and those in his inner circle were a bit strange and troubled and dramatic – I’d say that goes with the territory for sure. We all live such normal and protected lives. This guy stepped way out of normal. I suppose you’d have to do that to live in the wilderness among bears like that. Anyway, I am glad I saw this film. I think it will come into my head in waves. It’s meaning isn’t fully clear to me yet.
Heidi says: Here is my idea on the movie. I liked it a lot, because of the way how it was made and how the director saw the 'facts'. He gave me the feeling that he thought about Timothy the way I thought about him. Not completely, I'm sure, but I did mostly follow the director's vision on the matter. I think the guy, Timothy, was a nutcase, damaged by the drugs and alcohol he had taken during the years, and I believe he was quite sick in the head. He seemed to me like a man who never grew up, who stayed a child and couldn't live in a normal world. I don't think he did a lot to save the bears, but chose this life especially for himself, to be able to do something that he thought was valuable. I might be completely wrong, but that is how I felt during the whole movie. There were also a lot of people, friends or ex-girlfriends of Timothy, who terribly irritated me. They were so over-the-top, they seemed so fake to me. What interested me about this movie, was to see this other world and these other people. The thing is that I had the feeling that people are expected to feel respect for this 'other world' and this 'other kind of man, Timothy', but I didn't really feel that respect and don't look up to this man.
The thing that will stick in my head the most is the moment where the director says that Timothy thought that this bear was his friend, but he (the director) thought that the bear was just an animal that, when hungry, eats what it finds. The bear was hungry when it met Timothy on his last day, and didn't doubt. It ate him and his girlfriend and was satisfied.
7 comments:
"GRIZZLY MAN" GOT KILLED IN THE END???!!!!! guess i can take THAT off my netflix. next you'll tell me the "TITANIC" sinks, "KING KONG" dies, and norman bates is his own mother.
SPOILERS!!!!
(hey, wanna know what's in the hatch?)
jb.
hey jb -- the grizzly man sort of reminded us sometimes of....
I guess sometimes you need madmen to put things on the agenda. But I guess that doesn't count for Grizzly Man. To me he just put in doubt all the efforts of genuine environmentalists. It gives the 'others' the argument that all greenminded people are neglictable freaks.
He was saving bears in a natural resort where they were all ready well-protected. The only guy that didn't follow the rules... got eaten in the end.
Yep – see what you are saying – but he was also in areas that weren’t protected at all. He educated lots of kids for no money. He caught those morons on film throwing rocks at those bears – which surely happens all the time to get the prized photo. With zealot right-wingers who have no concern for the environment and have no qualms with clear-cutting the fu*k out of the forests and poaching bears for trophies on their walls, there is some need for crazy green lefties who may not be eloquent in their ways but can stir up trouble and bubble it to the surface. Somebody needs to be the Lorax. Somebody needs to speak for the trees. The loudest and craziest voice doesn’t always work but sometimes it grabs attention and even in death gets a few extra people thinking about something they perhaps took for granted before. This guy was indeed a sad case who probably went too far and perhaps didn’t accomplish a lot. But considering most people sit around on their arses and do absolutely nothing for anyone, that throwing-rocks-at-the-bear scene alone that this movie revealed is enough to make that crazy guy a hero for one second. The environmental and bear awareness he taught to children in schools before he got killed undoubtedly will cause at least one of those kids to fight for a good cause. In some ways I am sure this guy made a difference. Not necessarily with the impact he thought he could and not in a good-mannered or responsible way, but just the footage in this documentary alone, the scenes he recorded, will surely make a few more people think about these real issues. A scream, a cry or a crazy laugh isn’t always the best way to get something across – but it can make heads turn.
sorry, Sra, but I am not convinced. I absolutely believe in crazy left environmentalists, but this was just another kind to me. He didn't come accross as a genuine guy who wanted to save those bears. Thing is that what he did just totally left me cold, while I should have been crying, cause I'm pregnant and pregnant women are so emotional that they cry for everything... :)) No, what I mean is, that this guy didn't make me love animals more, I just found him pathetic and these animals were like cameos in his movie... It didn't make me feel sad about the animals because I had a feeling those bears wore well-protected and had a normal bear-life until he came along. Maybe that is the one thing that did mke me feel sad for the bears in the end...
Heidi
To each his own, right? Didn't make me cry either or feel at all emotional, that I can agree with. But I'm glad these "stories" exist. Gives us all something to think about and talk about. I don't argue that he wasn't nuts and I do agree he wasn't very responsible. With that said, good movie. Good story. Let's see what we learn about Steve Irwin next. Looking forward to that eventual movie/documentary too. Did you know there are websites about how to have proper and safe sex with dolphins? Now that is nuts!
couldn't agree more Sarahtje! :))
H
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