Terrell

I agree that he wasn't playing with a full deck. You can't do what he did and not be crazy. He seemed like someone who couldn't handle society, and felt more comfortable living as a wild man. His rants only reinforced the idea that he was nuts. He seemed to be a guy with a death wish.

But I do believe he loved the bears and wanted to protect them. But when you play with fire long enough, you're going to get burned. A bear killed him, and I have no doubt that he knew sooner or later it would happen. It's too bad. It's also sad that his girlfriend was with him, because it seem obvious to me that she was afraid of the bears and didn't want to be out there. But she loved him enough that she forced herself to do it.

Now as to whether that older bear that he filmed was the bear that killed him, nobody knows nor will they ever know. It could have been a bear that he didn't know.

zekeburger1979

The documentary points all that out. It explains the Austrailia thing, the drugs, the fact that he didn't save any wildlife, and that he was paranoid. His friends let him continue because they knew they wouldn't be able to convince him to live a different life.

If only he hadn't argued with the Air Alaska clerk.....

Jay G.

The companion doc that Discovery produced, DIARY OF A GRIZZLY MAN, points out that this was actually the girlfriend's third summer up there with him, and that she was an experienced outdoors person.

The companion documentery also has a deleted scene from the film where the ex and the pilot find a poached grizzly in the reserve the year after Treadwell's death. They mention that it's the 6th poached grizzly corpse found so far that year, and that there were no reported incidents of poaching in the reserve during the 13 years of Treadwell's expeditions.

Me007gold

now only if he would have brought some bud light with him....

resinrats

Saw it. The guy was a nut. Couldn't help laughing my butt off at him in several parts for being so crazy. I'm surprised it took that long for the bears to eat him. I would have thought his first year out, he'd be bear-lunch.

Terrell

Maybe, but I also remember the doc mentioning that she was afraid of the bears. We rarely saw her, and in fact never saw her face out of respect for her family. But it looked as though she didn't want to be out there with the bears.

For what it's worth, I'm an outdoorsman, but I have no desire to go face to face with grizzlies for 1 second, much less 13 summers.

Dr. DVD

What's this I have read about some of the people interviewed being actors and not actual friends?

Jay G.

We didn't get many shots of her because Tredwell was creating a fiction of being "all alone" for the film he was shooting. We actually do get to see her face near the end of the film, where she's crouching down in front of a bear. The woman was 37 years old, if she really didn't want to be out there with the bears, she didn't have to go up there for 3 consecutive summers.

Most people don't want to go skydiving or bungie jumping either. However, we don't typically refer to the people who do those sports as being suicidal or crazy, and when an accident occurs, it's still tragic if not entirely unexpected.

Jay G.

All of the people interviewed were his actual friends, but a good number of them are also actors or failed actors.

movieking

I saw the doc on TV, but I can't remember now: were they in the tent when the bear killed them?

Jay G.

They were in their camp when it happened, but the film doesn't mention whether or not they were in the tent when the attack occurred. That factor's probably a bit of an unknown.

AGuyNamedMike

I tried to watch it on and off, but couldn't deal. For some reason insane people scare the living shit out of me (agateophobia?) and I found I just couldn't remain comfortable watching this lunatic.

movieking

I was talking to a few people about the movie, and they thought that he was a closeted homosexual as well. He definitely was outlandish, but I didn't think that he was gay. Not that it really matters.

I have to say though: Timothy Treadwell did not look like he was 47 years old. Looking at him, I would say mid to late 30s.

brainee

I haven't seen this anywhere on this site, but have you guys heard this story about what happened to Herzog over the weekend while doing a promo interview in LA for "Grizzly Man":

Here's the interview: http://news.bbc.co.uk/nolavconsole/u...toryid=4681050

mongoco

Damn 50 Cent aint got nothin on Werner. Glad he's OK.

MGR

What an amazing Herzog interview. Especially when he pulls down his drawers on camera to show the BBC interviewer his bullet wound! And it's still bleeding! Man, that wound was only a few inches away from his family jewels...

OK now we know for sure Herzog is crazy. The legend grows...

Dr. DVD

The more you think about it, the more appropriate it was for Herzog to be the man who assembled this documentary about the life of Timothy Treadwell.

dhmac

I doubt that event happened as Werner Herzog claimed it did (i.e. he assumed that that argument caused Treadwell to return to the park, leading to his death). The real story I've read elsewhere on why Treadwell stayed in the park longer is because one of "his" bears was missing, and he was afraid something had happened to it. But he did see the bear again and was going to leave when he was killed.

dhmac

I actually think someone else could've make a much better documentary from Tim Treadwell's footage than what Herzog did. (Herzog reported didn't even screen all of Treadwell's footage, from what I've read.)

Eric D.

What the heck is a "snooker ball"? Must be a British thing.

Giles

I watched the 'The Diary of Grizzly Man' the featurette that followed the film, last night and thought it bookended the film perfectly. One question - the shot of the dead 'Olly the bear' - what was the date of the picture? - was it before Timothy's death or was the scene verifying that Olly wasn't the bear in question?

Tyler_Durden

No such luck; snooker is snooker everywhere. It's a form of billiards.

Eric D.

I guess it's now glaringly obvious that I don't play billiards.

Jay G.

That was a picture of the bear that was shot by park rangers and had human remains discovered inside. The park service never identified the bear aside from its tag number. Whether or not the bear that killed Treadwell was Olly is probably up for debate, although it's possible that someone could compare pictures and features of each bear.

riley_dude

He was a bit of a kook, wasn't he?
The ex girlfriend that got the watch was a bit weird too.