Tuesday, March 4, 2014
Biased By Nature
The story of Timothy Treadwell is extremely intriguing. For thirteen summers, he lived in the Alaskan wilderness, befriending and living amongst grizzly bears but also trying to protect them from harm. Upon first glance, I thought that Treadwell portrayed himself through his footage in a similar way to Australian wildlife expert Steve Irwin. In the first video, Treadwell positions himself just close enough to the bear that the viewer might feel uncomfortable, but at the same time fascinated by this man who has dedicated his life to living amongst and "protecting" these threatened animals. However, upon closer inspection of other videos, questions may arise regarding the mental state of this man. For example, in the clip where he watches the bear capturing fish, he starts to speak to the bear as if it can hear and understand him, which leads me to question his mental state. After listening to the NPR interview with Werner Herzog and watching the clips of Treadwell, the story seemed like the golden opportunity for manipulation and twist to make a good Hollywood film. In other words, I can easily see how Timothy's story could be twisted into a biased character study from the nature of his story and the hints I have picked up on in class.
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I agree that Treadwell's mental state is certainly not normal. After seeing half of the "documentary" on Tuesday, it solidified that to me that Treadwell had some sort of mental handicap. He wanted to save the bears and to protect them. His intentions were very pure, naïve, and childish. You could tell that he was sincere in his reason for being in Katmai National Park. But, why did they need saving? Aren't the bears in a wildlife preserve? Also, by trying to save the bears, did he directly cause the death of not only himself, but also his girlfriend as well? I do not think a mentally stable person would bring their girlfriend (or even themselves!) to live with grizzly bears.
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