In Werner Herzog’s documentary film Grizzly Man, Herzog follows the expeditions and life of Timothy Treadwell, a man bent on conserving the lives of grizzly bears in Alaska The film constantly puts Timothy Threadwell’s extreme passion towards a life threatening animal and the real motive behind his wild and dangerous living style in debate with commentary voiceovers from the editor Werner Herzog. It gives you a realistic feeling towards who these people in the film really are, including Timothy and the people in various relations to him by using the footage that is usually cut off during the interviews. It also shows you some of the rarest shots of life interactions between humans and bears that could not be found elsewhere.
The argument of whether Timothy Treadwell is a real environmentalist and an eco-warrior worthy of respect, whom has died in contribution to spreading the message of protecting bears as he strived towards, or was just being ignorant towards the safety borderlines between humans and nature because of his fascination about bears has replaced his addiction for drugs and alcohol usage and in the end finally died horribly due to his addiction driven mode of thinking, lack of self-cautious, and irresponsible choice for life was strongly
…show more content…
disputed throughout the entire film. Warner near the end of the film said, “What haunts me is that in all the faces of all the bears that Treadwell ever filmed, I discover no kinship, no understanding, no mercy.
I see only the overwhelming indifference of nature. To me, there is no such thing as a secret world of the bears and this blank stare speaks only of a half-bored interest in food. But for Timothy Treadwell, this bear was a friend, a savior.” I agree with Warner, I think all the people in the interviews whom hold different objective towards Timothy are not exactly standing in contradiction to each other. They all speak a piece of the true side of Timothy and altogether we have the complete picture of the Grizzly Man from the
film. Timothy’s story is unusual yet typical. Not many are irresistibly attracted to bears, but many do not have the ability to resist what they find mentally or physically pleasant to, even when at a point, it may cause them great harm in an obvious way. Every ones grizzly bear is different. It may be drugs and alcohols to some, to others it may be a job or a childhood dream, or it may even be a beloved person. Warner was able to give the film a raw footage look, by leaving in the final sequence of the repeated camera takes that Timothy took. Also by leaving the shots of Timothy talking to himself and the shots of him yelling at the camera in the middle of the forest as if he is simply pouring out his emotions. The prolonged low angel reaction shots used at the interviews of his friends and families, which in a way could have lead you to feel like they have caught these people off guard or unexpected, when they thought they are not going to be on camera at that particular time. In the scene where the coroner gave the watch that was on Timothy’s wrist at the time of death to his ex-girlfriend, she seemed awkwardly happy. The expected sadness in remembrance of Timothy is not there. Instead she gladly received the watch and handled it as if she just bought it from a store. In another scene there is another girl saying how heartbroken she is because she has lost her loved one. The voiceover emphasized that she claimed only to be Timothy’s platonic friend. Later in the film, these two girls met up and brought Timothy’s ashes to a national park where he enjoyed camping. When the platonic girl opened the ash case, the ex-girlfriend talked about how there is some bear fur in it. Then the platonic girl took some ash with her bare hand begins to let it go with the wind, but some of the ash fall on her dress. The scene seemed ironical rather than sorrowful. In all of these scenes, there is no background music of any kind that applied to take your emotion anywhere. The editor left these usually cut out, awkward scenes in the film for a purpose. It’s these strange moments that had given you a familiar feeling, which added more flavors to the film because it showed realness. Despite all of the questions towards the should or should not Timothy been the way he had been, he is gone, but the video footage he left to the world was absolutely stunningly beautiful and full of love for the nature, the bears, foxes, the trees and flowers in the wild and most importantly his own identity that he had assigned himself. In the scene when his fox friend took his hat, Timothy ran after him and asked the fox to return his hat with his child like voice as if he was running after a kid. Later there are other scenes of the foxes hanging out on top of his tent and running along as he runs through a field. It is clear that there is a relationship between Timothy and the foxes. He touched the bear’s nose beside the river, witnessed baby bears grow into adult bears, experienced rain fall right after he desperately yelled in his tent asking for rain with his full heart. These documented footages are very different than if acted out by an actor. A film of true story moves your heart and provokes your mind. Timothy enjoyed the wild and died within his own expectation through the way had chosen without doubt or all of those questions in the viewer’s mind as we are watching him. Grizzly Man is a very unique film that gives you the choice to interpret the meaning of it in the way you want. You can view this film and believe that Timothy was a trouble individual in society and died doing something completely crazy. Or you can believe that Timothy truly loved the grizzly bears and he would do anything and everything he could to protect them. Timothy can be read as a crazy psychotic individual or just an ordinary man. Either was you view the Timothy and the film, it is truly amazing that he was able to survive 13 summers in the wild with the bears and foxes.
All three adventurers displayed their affection for the wilderness through how they lived after leaving society. After reaching Fairbanks, Alaska, McCandless set up his camp and began to live off the wildlife nearby. In his journal, he noted what he caught each day and showed his gratefulness through his writing font. He believed that “it [wildlife] was morally indefensible to waste any part of an animal that has been shot for food” (166). He tried his best to preserve the animals he shot for food, which in turn displayed his thoughts of nature as something precious.
In this paper Martin is arguing that late quaternary or near time extinctions where caused by human activity or as he calls it “overkill”. Martin recognizes that there have been many forces that have triggered extinctions in the planet on the past but disagrees with the idea that near time extinctions where caused by some commonly believed causes like climate change, disease or nutrient shortage. He argues that the arrival of humans to different continents, islands and the subsequent excessive hunting, the introduction of diseases and other competitors and predators was the cause of extinction of a great number of species “As our species spread to various continents we wiped out their large
Grizzly Man (2005) is a documentary directed by Werner Herzog. It details the life of Timothy Treadwell, and how he spent thirteen summers in the Alaskan wilderness with grizzly bears, only to lead to his demise by the bears that he cared about so much. In a way it could be a documentary about a documentary. Herzog’s Documentary consists of several interviews of family, friends, and acquaintances, and several pieces of film shot by Timothy Treadwell himself. Grizzly Man as a films toys with several modes of documentary defined by Bill Nichols. The film as a whole is shown through reflexive mode, though through the film shot by Timothy, the documentary would also go towards an observational mode. From the rough, and in a sense, improvised camera
The epigraphs presented by Krakauer before each chapter of the memoir Into the Wild dive deep into the life of Chris McCandless before and after his journey into the Alaskan wilderness. They compare him to famous “coming of age characters” and specific ideas written by some of his favorite philosophers. These give the reader a stronger sense of who Chris was and why he made the decision to ultimately walk alone into the wild.
When Jon Krakauer published a story about the death of a young man trekking into the Alaskan frontier in the January 1993 issue of Outside magazine, the audience’s response to Christopher McCandless’s story was overwhelming. Thousand of letters came flooding in as a response to the article. Despite the claims, especially from the native Alaskans, questioning McCandless’s mental stability and judgement, it soon becomes clear that McCandless was not just "another delusional visitor to the Alaskan frontier" (4). As Krakauer retells the life of Christopher McCandless and gives his own take on the controversy around McCandless’s death in Into The Wild, the reader also creates his own opinion on both McCandless and Krakauer’s argument. Krakauer
ultimately defends the wild in all of its forms. He opens the novel with a narrative story about a
Was Chris McCandless deranged? Was he delusional? Or was he a hero? Since Chris’ body was found in bus 142 in the middle of the Alaskan wilderness, he has been called many things. Those who knew him believed that he wasn’t crazy; that his impulsive actions and aspirations to explore the world, were no more than the natural inclinations of a young and idealistic spirit. However, his desire to venture into the unknown with no source of human contact and nothing but a ten-pound bag of rice, is not considered normal behavior. Jon Kraukauer’s, Into The Wild, manifests how Chris McCandless’ antisocial demeanor, lack of remorse, and impulsive actions are directly relatable to behaviors associated with a sociopath.
Timothy Treadwell spent his summers in Alaska living with and documenting bears. He believed that by doing that he was protecting the bears from potential harm, but maybe he wasn’t helping the bears, maybe he was hurting them. Timothy had his heart in the right place when he journeyed to Alaska each year, but his actions weren’t quite what the bears needed. Timothy didn’t accomplish much while he was there, he said he was protecting the bears but he was only bothering them. Timothy became so focused on protecting the bears, that he didn’t realize all the harm he was causing. All he saw was that he was there, protecting them from anything that wanted to hurt them.
Living in the wilderness is difficult, but understanding the meaning of such lifestyle is even more difficult. One of the Christopher’s admirable qualities was that he was well aware of what he was doing. He knew about the difficulties and dangers that he would face into the wilderness, and was mentally prepared for that. Author Jon Krakauer says that “McCandless was green, and he overestimated his resilience, but he was sufficiently skilled to last for sixteen weeks on little more than his wits and ten pounds of rice. And he was fully aware when he entered the bush that he had given himself a perilously slim margin for error. He knew precisely what was at stake” (182). McCandless was an educated youth, who loved nature and dreamed of living in the Alaskan wilderness. Although he ignored to take many necessary things with him on this
Chris McCandless is regarded as being something as a spiritual figure almost as a cult hero, some call him a disillusioned fool, some call him a great adventurer, and the debate still continues. As Matthew Power calls in his article, an article where he tells the story of McCandless,“The debate falls into two camps: Krakauer's visionary seeker, the tragic hero who dared to live the unmediated life he had dreamed of and died trying; or, as many Alaskans see it, the unprepared fool, a greenhorn who had fundamentally misjudged the wilderness he'd wanted so desperately to commune with.” Like so many stories covering Christopher McCandless’ death, both ends of the argument are discussed in an unfavored manner in the hopes to help develop an opinion on the McCandless story. This open ended question can only be answered open-endedly based on what the readers base for themselves as covered stories intend. Like Power has done, ...
Treadwell believed that he was part of the Grizzly Bear community. He believed that he was on the same level of hierarchy as the bears. This is proven by how he interacted with the animals. He would talk to them, play with the cubs, and also scolded them when they did something bad (Grizzly Man). He wouldn’t hesitate when he approached the bears and he called them all by name. He even had foxes come up to his camp site. He yelled at one of them when it stole his hat and he even chased after it and scolded it. Also on an interview with David Letterman he said that “it was important that the bears know that he fits on their hierarchy.”
of the wolves and finds that they are more than the savage and merciless hunters
From the lone hiker on the Appalachian Trail to the environmental lobby groups in Washington D.C., nature evokes strong feelings in each and every one of us. We often struggle with and are ultimately shaped by our relationship with nature. The relationship we forge with nature reflects our fundamental beliefs about ourselves and the world around us. The works of timeless authors, including Henry David Thoreau and Annie Dillard, are centered around their relationship to nature.
McCandless is a very independent person, a person with high hopes, that has a lot of courage, and is a very brave man for going out by himself in the wild of Alaska of the Stampede Trail. Chris McCandless had a lot of courage on going to Alaska by himself at a young age. While Chris was at any city or anybody’s house, he was ready to go to Alaska. But while he was there, close to the end of his life, he left a note on the back of the bus saying, “S.O.S I need your help. I am injured, near death, and too weak to hike out of here i am all alone, this is no joke. In the name of god, please remain to save me. I am out collecting berries close by and shall return by evening. Thank you, Chris McCandless. August?” Chris McCandless was by himself at the time. He shows his courage because while by himself, he went back out even though he was near death. He went out for food. Food for his health. That shows how much courage he had for his trip. Chris McCandless encouraged many young men to ...
Grizzly Man is a documentary produced in 2005 by Discovery Docs and Lions Gate Entertainment. Grizzly man depicts Timothy Treadwell’s lifework. Timothy spent thirteen summers in Alaska at Katmai National Park. He meticulously filmed over 100 hours of video and repeated narrative takes up to 15 times. Timothy had a unique relationship with the animals he encountered. He was searching for himself and believed that bears gave him life where he had none. He connected to the bears and mimicked their actions. He wanted the bears to accept him as one of their own. His colleagues either respected his relationship with bears or thought he was crazy and going to get himself killed. His love and awe of these deadly creatures led to his death. A bear killed Timothy Treadwell and his girlfriend