Don't Judge a Person By a Film

Having watched half of ‘Grizzly Man’ and listening to the interview, one thing that really struck me were the differing perspectives and opinions of Treadwell’s adventures. As Hayley previously mentioned, Herzog produced the film after Treadwell had already passed away, and he was the one that chose which footage was shown, how it was shown, and who he interviewed and included in the film. As I watched the first moments of the film, I thought what Treadwell was doing was admirable and was a genuine act of kindness. As the film progressed and I listened to the disapprovals, I started to question whether his adventures with the bears were really helping or hurting. Many people thought that “he was disrespecting the bear (…) crossed a boundary.”(Grizzly Man) Looking at the shots where the bears were civilized and seemed unbothered by his presence, I would have never thought that he was crossing a boundary. However, when the film announced that a bear killed Treadwell, I really questioned his decision to go into the wild with these bears. If Timothy hadn’t died, the footage shown in the documentary would have convinced me that Grizzly bears are not as aggressive and unfriendly as I thought; however, the unfortunate attack by the bear makes his intentions and his results seem less legitimate.

In the class decision, the big question of “what story is actually being told,” really got me thinking. Although the documentary was not scripted, the director strategically presented certain scenes with certain outside inputs in order to send a message to the audience. In his interview he says that Timothy had disrespected the bears and that his actions were ‘wrong.’ Similarly, in Grizzly Man, one of the people who were interviewed said that ‘he got what he deserved.’ (Grizzly Man). Is this the message that Herzog is trying to send to us? Is this the reason he made this film? Even though their thoughts on the matter are valid and understandable, I don’t think that anyone can say what was ‘wrong’ or ‘right’ regarding these attempts. We, as the audience, must now try to formulate our own opinions and outlooks on Timothy Treadwell’s efforts without allowing the inputs from others contaminate our perspective and lead us in a direction that they want us to go.