Grizzly Man is a documentary directed by Werner Hezog and has Timothy Treadwell as protagonist, an American young man that spent nearly 14 years living with grizzly bears in Alaska until he was killed by them (do not worry though, this is not how the film ends. It is how it begins).
The documentary shows some investigation done by the director, but most importantly are the more than 100 hours of footage Tim recorded during his time in Alaska. Tim had clearly a unique personality and it might be one of the reasons why he had a dark past related to alcohol, which probably made him want isolation. He was fascinated by bears, but it is very interesting how the mix of experiences turned out.
He has the stereotypical negligible and narcissist American personality. A person who thinks that is defending the bears when it is a big lie to himself, since he needed them. Experts assured doing what he was doing was but interfering with their environment and therefore affecting their lives. This person considered other humans intruders, but not him. He had no idea on how to treat with bears and it was clearly shown on the footage. He treated them like friends, but very scared because of bears reactions (not sure what he expected when tapping them). It is a little bit (let us put it this way) embarrassing how he does not want to call himself a famous person, but he believes there are hundreds of people looking for him in the area he is living in and how he dares everyone to go and live there, in his own words, 'the most dangerous place in the planet and in history'. Many times he acts like he knows what he is doing, and then he gets scared because he clearly has no idea. When speaking to bears he repeats "you are the boss" like if they understood, when obviously he is just 'giving the power' he believes he has, so the audience will think he knows what he is doing and loving the bears. He had such a twisted concept of himself that he behaved all the time like a TV presenter, repeating shots if necessary, posing with another camera like he an adventurer for children, making his own fantasy alive.
He also claims repeatedly how he does not believe in god, and he is desperately asking for things and when they naturally arrive (like rain) he thinks it is because of his prays and his efforts. Again, brainless and self-harming narcissism. He clearly was not happy. Maybe he did not have from life what he expected and he felt better in Alaska than at home, but a person who is constantly repeating how much he loves his life sounds to me like he wants to convince himself that he actually does.
At some point in the film I realised how we see nature in the western culture. I think we have a very mistaken concept of nature and we visualise it as we like to make us feel better. We are just like the bears, like the animals in many basic aspects. Werner Hezog put it in better words in what I think is the best quote in the film: "I believe the common denominator of the Universe is not harmony, but chaos, hostility and murder" when in a shot a bear stops next to Tim and his girlfriend with an indifferent expression.
In my opinion (I am not an expert, but this is the impression I got) Timothy Treadwell was a person with deep psychological problems that found an extravagant way to leave everything behind. Somehow, it made him happier than he was, but he was seriously arrogant and egocentric. But he made himself the star of his own fantasy show and I think the documentary is all about that, about the insanity of a man, and the bears are just in the background to support arguments. He mentioned several times that he was going to be famous when he died, something that makes me think that he, deeply inside, wanted to die but also to 'mean more' than he thought he meant, to be remembered for something.
