After
listening to the NPR interview and his short clip, I find it difficult to
sympathize, or even relate to Timothy Treadwell and his devotion to grizzly
bears. Werner Herzog presents
Treadwell to have brought his death onto himself. Instead of focusing on the good that Treadwell did for the
grizzly bears, the listener is focused on how his “demons” lead him to drugs
and alcohol. The question I kept
wondering was how Treadwell came to his concern for grizzly bears and what
about them lead him to find sobriety.
The entire situation is one I find difficult to relate to, as well as
Herzog makes no effort to promote his work, instead he harps on how Treadwell
blurred the relationship and danger between man and nature.
I think that after watching the first half of the documentary it is indeed difficult to feel sympathy for Timothy Treadwell. His actions proved naive and childish. He felt that he was needed to protect the grizzly bears that were already part of a federal reserve. One of the pilots in the documentary even said that Treadwell got what he deserved. I think that he lost sight of what was really going on. Given his drug and alcohol abuse earlier on in his life, it seems as if he looked for an escape, and the grizzly bears provided him with one. But then he began to connect so deeply with them that he began to lose his humanness. I think there definitely exists a line between wild animals and humans, and Treadwell crossed it. Although it is hard to feel for him, given the circumstances, I can't help but show some sympathy because he was certainly a troubled man.
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