While watching Grizzly Man, I expirenced so many different emotions. Timothy's enthusiasm for nature and it's creatures is infectious and makes me happy seeing him so in love with his surroundings, but when thinking about how and why he got there, the feeling of sorrow and sympathy is overwhelming. It makes me so sad to think about how Timothy tried so hard in the "human" world to be sucessful and to fit in, but was faced with many handicaps. Those including what can be percieved by the clips in the film, Grizzly Man, to be some kind of manic depressive state, and then adding just the crulety of today's society it is honestly understandable to me to want to flee from all of that. I understand feeling as though you didn't choose to be alive and be a person, and you don't get a choice but he found a way to enjoy life, and although it was extremly unconventional, it made him happy.
There can be arguments made for both sides of the controversy over Timothy Treadwell's lifestyle. Like discussed inclass the parrallels between the mean hunter and the good bear, Timothy's life style was similiar to that in that he wasn't harming the bears or leaving any kind of permanent mark on the land, but he was making the bears accustomed to humans, which was not good. There are good and bad to both. Many people thought we was crazy, and he probably did have some kind of mental dissability of some sort, but it didn't seem in the movie that any one was really trying to help him with his addictions, to drugs, alcohol, or bears. This opens up a new topic of how people have no problem lableing others, but won't act upon those words to do good. All in all, I am glad that Timothy Treadwell found something that made him enjoy life, for many people in his situation never do.
Nice post! I think that you did a great job highlighting the dualism of the film, apart from the conflicting view of Treadwell and Herzog. The film definitely illustrates how people like to have a very cut and dry view of things in world where 99.9999% of things exist on a spectrum. To expand on what you said about his mental illness, I think that once someone is labeled as having a mental disorder or addiction society tends to minimize what he/she has to say or attribute it to the disorder, but under the label is a person who is just valid as everyone else. A few typos aside (we/he), you had a great post, which focused on Treadwell as more than a label assigned by society.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your post. I think that you really nailed the conflict of the situation between Treadwell and Herzog. I like how you talk about his mental illnesses and how you talk about the views of people in general. I really liked this post.
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