Grizzly Man: Fred Rogers On Acid.



Theme: You can make friends with some of the bears, some of the time.

Grizzly Man is a combination of a captivating movie and a snuff flick. Werner Herzog, master documentarist, existentialist and one-time NASA employee, narrates this tale of beauty and madness as we watch Grizzly Bear activist, Timothy Treadwell, videotape himself interacting with grizzlies over several summers in the Katmai Peninsula of Alaska. Treadwell, after an alcoholic crisis, decided to return to nature and live with the bears. He was able to do this successfully for thirteen years, until one of the bears decided he’d had enough and ate Treadwell and his girlfriend. Treadwell formed an organization, Grizzly People, to fund his efforts, and in the off season he gave lectures to elementary schools, without charge.

It’s exciting to watch Treadwell slowly approach a huge griz and touch it on the nose. It’s embarrassing to watch Treadwell’s adolescent Marlon Perkins act. Treadwell speaks to animals, the grizzlies and his adopted fox family, in a high, plaintive voice. He sometimes forgets to turn that voice off as he goes into his narrations, which come off like a jilted drag queen holding court. “I would never, ever, hurt a bear. Even if they hurt me.” He is the love child of Fred Rogers and Priscilla of the Desert. At one point Treadwell explains that he wishes he were gay, because it would be easier to get sex, but, sadly, he’s not. Imagine Marlin Perkins steering off course like that while filming killer hippos.

One longs for the Herzog’s sane monotones to offset Treadwell’s twittering babble. Interviews with an Alaska native and other bush folk, reveal that most of them thought Treadwell was crazy and was actually disrespecting the bears by trying to become one. Perhaps most bizarre of all, are interviews with Franc G. Fallico, medical examiner. Fallico novelizes the demise of the duo as if he were auditioning for the part of Quasimodo.

Much footage is given to the fatal attack. It seems a rogue griz, not one of Treadwell’s longtime friends, did the deed. Park Rangers felled the bear in a prolonged hail of magnum, and then discovered that they had, indeed, killed the right bear after examining the stomach contents. Bears are known to have an overwhelming rage response, not unlike humans (Bubba after Mama throw out the six pack). Treadwell always ended his summer sojourns and ultimately his life in “The Bear Maize”, a dense area of berry bushes riddled with end-of-season, hyperphagic bears. Treadwell was constantly testing his theory that he could meld with the bears. Well, it worked.