NETFLIX INSTANT STREAM RECOMMENDATION: GRIZZLY MAN

The legendary German director Werner Herzog's 2005 documentary Grizzly Man tells the story of Timothy Treadwell, who for 10 straight summers lived by himself among wild grizzly bears on a wildlife plantation in Alaska. Treadwell garnered national attention for the outrageously intimate footage he shot on video of these bears, getting inches from their face and filming fights for food. Treadwell's love and compassion for these bears surpassed almost any human connection we can imagine. His obsession with every facet of their daily survival and existence is both weird (he talks to them like infants) and endearing.

Unfortunately, Treadwell also got in the news because the species he devoted so much time to ended up being his demise. Treadwell and his girlfriend were killed and eaten by one of these grizzlies at the end of a summer. There are candid interviews with people that were closest to him and others that knew him by reputation. One side feels compassion for Tim insisting this is the way he wanted to go, and other saying he got what he deserved because Tim trespassed on the bears' sacred land, a Native American credo going back centuries. We learn more about Tim through his family and ex-girlfriend. He was an aspiring actor but after he didn't get a lead part on Cheers, he became a severe alcoholic and drug addict, and almost lost his life. The footage of the bears also includes commentary from Treadwell kneeling down in front of the camera, and soon he uses it as a confessional tool.  You get the sense as he talks about his past that he was truly troubled, and that the bears were his salvation. He has rants about hating the human world and heartbreaking relationships with women. Like many former addicts, they need something else, something legal to be addicted to, for Treadwell it was the grizzlies, it was the adrenaline of putting your life in harm's way every day. He insists, if you freeze up, if they sense any fear from you, you're dead. There are a couple times where a bear is advancing on him, apparently with menace, and he kind of shoos them away with a lot of gusto and they just turn in the other direction.

The footage itself of the bears is incredible, there's one brawl between two bears that is ferocious and illustrates what kind of danger Treadwell was surrounding himself with every day. The director Herzog comes across the last tape from Treadwell's camera. As he and his girlfriend were being attacked, the lens cap was on but the sound was rolling. He listens to it with headphones, and is shaken, and tells Treadwell's ex-girlfriend to destroy it. We are told the bear attacked Treadwell first, and the girlfriend was hitting it with a pan trying to make it stop, and as he's dying, he implores his girlfriend to run. Even before death, he wished these animals no harm. It's a beautiful and fascinating documentary.

Available on Netflix Instant Stream

-Rex

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