Followers

Sunday, August 26, 2012

Reality Check

Timothy Treadwell, a Jane Goodall of Grizzly bears, indulged his infatuation at the Bear 's Sanctuary in the Alaskan tundra.  Watching Grizzly Man, the audience easily saw Treadwell’s love for bears started early as his mother displayed his first stuffed teddy bear in the film. The documentary conveyed Treadwell’s hatred of civilization: showing his reasoning to retreat to a secluded land where the bears have food, water, and long grassy plains. This land, where Treadwell filmed most of the shots seen in the documentary, is called the Bear’s Sanctuary (Herzog). 



Jane Goodall
This sanctuary deemed heavenly for not only the bears but Treadwell as well. A sanctuary, which acted as a safe-harbor for Treadwell, protected him from his own fury and his temptations of drinking or drugs; it was just serene for him: a forced rehab. His sanctuary allowed him to be himself shown by his split feelings over why women do not like him or how the people of the wildlife protection angered him. He was surrounded by his comforting “pacifier” of his grizzly bears like his stuffed teddy bear he had as a child. The sanctuary was Treadwell’s fantasy and civilization was his reality. On that fateful day when Treadwell and his girlfriend were eaten alive by Treadwell’s one true “pacifier” it must have been a reality check for Treadwell to realize how one can be brought back from that fantasy/ sanctuary to the cruel reality. His cruel reality, unveiled, showed his "pacifier" to be a menacing killer.

 
Trailer for Grizzly Man

Picture:

Jennifer MapesNational Geographic News (March. "National Geographic News @ Nationalgeographic.com." National Geographic. National Geographic Society, n.d. Web. 26 Aug. 2012. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/03/0313_goodall.html.

Film:

Grizzly Man. Dir. Warner Herzog. Perf. Timonty Treadwell. Lion Gate, 2005. DVD.

1 comment:

  1. Timothy Treadwell did see good in the bears but he also knew what he was doing was dangerous. It's seen more in Grizzly Man Diaries. At the beginning of Grizzly Man, Wernor Herzog does include a clip of Treadwell talking about how dangerous the bears were. Treadwell states that the bears will decapitate a human. He knows these animals can easily kill him.

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