Grizzly Man is an adventure documentary that follows the life of Timothy “Treadwell” Dexter over 13 years as he journeys through the Alaskan wilderness to live with wild bears and other animals. This documentary shows us the life of someone who truly believed that their place was in nature. Timothy had a normal middle-class upbringing and he was always fascinated by bears, even having a stuffed one that went everywhere with him. After going off to college Timothy returned an alcoholic and a frequent drug user. He began to have mental issues which pushed him to almost overdosing. After that incident he had an epiphany and believed that it was time for him to go out into nature and protect it, especially bears. He began spending his summers out in the Alaskan wilderness putting himself in very dangerous situations with wild bears. After a few summers he began taking his camera out with him to record his life and what I believe to be his eventual loss of sanity, until his tragic death at the paws of the animals he believed he was protecting.
This documentary does a great job of showing both sides of Timothy’s life and personality. Through the stories of his parents and those who loved him to the people that despised what he was doing and painted him a lunatic. Those that loved Timothy believed he was truly helping protect the bears from poachers and overall just enjoying his love of nature. Others, though, believed he was someone who was mentally unstable or even being offensive by forcing himself into their natural habit and breaking boundaries set not only by the government but also by the people who lived their natively.
Although this film shows both sides of Timothy, I truly believe that he was someone who had developed mental issues and felt nature was his only outlet. He has a huge self-sense of justice in that everything he is doing is for the bears and the nature they live in. I find that strange though as through the course of the film I never actually saw him do anything to help them. He mostly just kept his distance or the few that felt safe around him he would be friendly with. The documentary also shows his descent into to anger at the civilized world and people. Although the park reported no issues of poachers over the years Timothy still believed that they were always coming and anytime someone came out to his area he would get angry at them. He especially had hatred towards the National Parks Service and Government as towards the end of the film he goes on a large rant claiming how much he protected the bears while they didn’t do a thing.
`I truly believe that Timothy had some mental demons that developed over time and nature was his only outlet. I also think that he had accepted that he wanted his fate to be out there in those woods. It was a great film and I would highly recommend anyone who is interested in nature to watch it.
Link For Film – https://tubitv.com/movies/393462/grizzly_man
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