Grizzly Man

Most of the film is comprised of Treadwell’s hundreds of hours of footage while in Alaska, with many clips showing Treadwell interacting with the bears and foxes in the area he frequently camped at. Treadwell shows an intense fondness for the bears, giving all of them pet names as if they belonged to him. Herzog shows through various clips that what many might have thought of as fascination may have indeed been an obsession. In one recording, Treadwell documents the fight between two male bears over a female. Treadwell comments behind the camera as he zooms in on the female that if he were a bear, he would also be attracted to her, giving her the moniker of the “Michelle Pfeifer” of bears. Herzog does not say anything outright, and it is entirely up to how the viewer interprets the clip and the rest of the film, but it is a possibility that Treadwell felt genuine sexual desire for the bears. This is bolstered by how far Treadwell takes his fascination with the bears where, in one scene, as soon as the coast is clear he goes up to and feels a pile of bear dung, commenting on its warmth.

One of Herzog’s various interviews is with the curator of the Alutiiq Museum in Kodiak, Sven Haakanson. Haakanson, a member of the Alutiiq people himself, comments on how for 7,000 years his people have known the unspoken boundary between bear and human, and that Treadwell crossed that. Ultimately, Haakanson says, Treadwell did more harm than good for the bears by habituating them to human activity.

Treadwell’s activist efforts must be seen in light of what ultimately happened regarding his death. Herzog shows that, because of however the bear that killed Treadwell was provoked to attack, it ultimately ended in three deaths. Both Treadwell and his girlfriend at the time were eaten, and the search party that sought out Treadwell’s remains ended up killing the bear that ate him, which was autopsied and found to have human remains. The viewer is left to wonder if someone like Treadwell, who claimed to be an environmentalist, can keep that title if they are responsible for the death of an animal they sought to protect.

Even Treadwell’s intentions for being in Alaska are unclear. Treadwell spent many years teaching children about grizzlies and the environment through invitations by various organizations, so he does have a background of genuine love for the environmentalist cause. However, in several of his clips, Treadwell comments on how he hopes to have his work turned into a TV show, to become famous. In many of his recordings, Treadwell does take after take, not satisfied with showing nature as is.

Herzog’s Grizzly Man is a fascinating film for any aspiring environmentalist. Not only is it a deep dive into the psyche of one man, but it is also a word of warning against those seeking to follow Treadwell’s way of life. Grizzly Man begs the question, can just anyone be an environmentalist?