I'm  really excited to watch Grizzly Man in class.  I've seen the
movie before, but I think that after reading Into the Wild it may
offer a new perspective on the life of Timothy Treadwell.  My first
impression of him was that he was made to look crazy by filmmaker
Werner Herzog.  The reason I felt this way was that the director chose
a small selection of footage from many hundreds of hours that
Treadwell had recorded over the 14 summers he spent in the Alaskan
grizzly territory.  He portrayed Treadwell as a crazy man that thought
he could overcome the overwhelming power of nature, and failed.

At the time of my first viewing I saw a man that was slightly deluded
about his purpose for spending so much time with the bears; he claimed
to be a protector of the bears, creating awareness and defending them
from poachers.  However, he didn't seem crazy to me.  He seemed like a
recovering drug addict who had found a way to live his life without
substances by replacing it with the thrill of befriending wild animals
in a way that no one had ever done before.  It was a simpler world
that he could escape to instead of escaping into substance abuse.  He
seemed like he didn't feel like he fit into society and had found a
way to find purpose to his life.

I found it utterly impressive that he successfully braved more than 13
summers living in the Grizzly Sanctuary/Maze in such close proximity
to ferocious bears.  It seems like he just pushed his luck a little
bit too far, by staying later in the season than he ever had and
trying to push the envelope.  Some of the footage that he caught was
absolutely mesmerizing, especially the scenes with Timmy the Fox.  I'm
excited to see if my opinion changes after a second viewing.  I'll do
an update after we finish watching.