After watching Timothy Treadwell’s first personal
video where he describes his wilderness mission, I perceived him as someone who
cared about the grizzly bears. However, as I watched the rest of his videos and
researched about him, it changed my perception of him. He was a struggling artist
and an alcoholic before he got his fame through fighting for Grizzly bears. In
the video, Treadwell seemed peculiar when he tries to teach Downey the bear how
to catch a fish, when Downey is clearly not responding. However, Werner Herzog says
Treadwell’s odd behaviors were due to his solitude and not due to any sort of
craziness. He also states that the grizzly bears saved Treadwell from his dark
days and therefore, he was even more passionate about the cause. This altered
my perception to believe that Treadwell is not abnormal and is just concerned
about the bears. Herzog recreates
Treadwell through his movie, making me question the credits of this film being
a “documentary.” Like O’Brien, Herzog is tweaking the truth to attract an
audience. O’Brien says that no one would read his novel if he wrote about how
he played golf instead of crossing the bridge to Canada. In the same way, Herzog
creates a movie about a man who lived with the bears rather than a man who
wants to become famous.
Before listening to the NPR interview, I couldn't understand why a man would care so much about "protecting" these bears, especially because they are already living in a national park. When you mentioned that "the grizzly bears saved Treadwell from his dark days", it made me wonder who really needed who in this situation. Timothy makes it seem like the bears would have no protection without him, which I don't think is exactly true. After listening to that interview, it made me think that maybe it's Timothy who really needs the bears, not the other way around. If the bears helped him through recovery and out of a bad place, it would make sense that he would grow an attachment to them.
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