Grizzly Man Questions

1. Herzog's purpose in revealing Treadwell's death so early in the film seemed to try to explain that this isn't a story about his death, but more of answering questions and informing the audience on Treadwell's experiences in the wild with the grizzly bears. Revealing Treadwell's death allowed for Herzog to point out the reality in what Treadwell was doing. The reality was more than Treadwell thought it was. Later on, Herzog shows an interview with Treadwell's parents, revealing a pretty normal upbringing and making the audience wonder what has caused such behaviors from Treadwell. Treadwell develops hatred towards human interactions, resulting in his desires of protecting the grizzly bears although many people may believe different.

2. By using the term "I believe," Herzog and his film become less credible. Herzog continuously brought in his opinion into the documentary. Especially during a documentary intended to relay information to the public, personal opinions are not appropriate. When a narrator shares personal opinions it comes out as judgement and is hard for the audience not to believe them. As for entering his own film, I believe Herzog does so in order to help relay emotion to the audience. Throughout the film, friends and family of Treadwell are shown, so obviously talking about his death would be emotional, but when Herzog enters it is someone from the outside and allows for the audience to connect more. By appearing in the documentary, Herzog presents the audio of Treadwell's death and allows for the audience to imagine what they are hearing. This significantly increases the emotional aspect for the audience as it reels them into the documentary.

3. In Grizzily Man, Herzog seemed to show clips that portrayed Treadwell in a bias manner as he continuously showed sleeps that Treadwell wouldn't have want shown to the general public. A lot of times, the actor side of Treadwell was shown, which made him less credible in his videos as he continuously shot scenes over with different emotions. This is not necessarily bad on Herzog's part as it does show the real side of Treadwell was and helps understand him as a character. His childish actions portrayed throughout the documentary may have harmed Treadwell's imagine as it was hard to take him seriously at times. As for his family, were more concerned with the positive work he had done to 'protect' the bears. He had a passion for these creatures and wanted to be surrounded by them in his life. The portrayed him as a very moral character who was very accomplished in what he did. Herzog and Treadwell's family seemed to have conflicting views at times.

4. Tim Treadwell began his adventures in order to strive to protect the grizzly bears from any dangers they may have been facing through humans. Tim did say he was thee to protect them, but there was not any evidence in the documentary that he did anything to do so. There did not seem to be any immediate threats to the grizzly bears. Therefore, even though Treadwell would disagree, I don't believe that his goal of protecting the bears was a noble one. Instead, it was only habituating them to human presence. Through interviews with bear experts, it was suggested that Treadwell may actually be doing more harm than good. One had mentioned that the grizzly bear population is pretty stable and the human presence may help keep the population under control. Also, another had mentioned that its even a sign of disrespect and one shouldn't invade on their territory and that Tim had crossed the boundary. As the documentary went on and I saw what clips were being shown, I began to believe that Herzog's purpose in making this documentary might have been to discredit Treadwell for his actions.

5. There was clear evidence throughout the documentary that Treadwell wasn't happy about human life as it was. Through a look at his childhood it had seemed that he wanted to mutate into a wild animal, or more specifically a bear. Tim mentions that the grizzly world is simple, yet harsh, but wanted to be a part of nature. He even went as far as saying 'Death is the best option.' Herzog defends the biologist's statements by showing clips of Tim's childhood and how he never had good relationships with humans. He wanted to cross the invisible line between humans and bears and become part of their world. Treadwell's credibility was still tested when he stated at one point that he was all alone on the island with grizzlies, when in fact, he was not. Although Tim wanted to develop a relationship with bears, he still maintained that human connection with the outside world.

6. Death seems to be a common denominator in this documentary. There is death present throughout nature including death of the bears or the foxes and even the death of Treadwell. I believe Herzog included the statement, "I believe the common denominator of the universe is not harmony, but chaos, hostility, and murder," because it shows Treadwell as a sensitive character who is sentimentalizing the beauty of nature around him. He seems to believe that everything is harmonic and pure in nature, but this is just not the case. All this death in the environment is natural as he helps control the populations of these creatures, but Timothy does not seem to understand that there is death all around the animal world. Through this statement, I feel like Herzog seemed to be intentionally bashing Treadwell's intentions like he has seemed to do throughout the documentary.

7. The audio tapes in the documentary of Treadwell's death were not directly released to the viewing audience. This may have been done out of a sign of respect as it would have been inappropriate unjust to play the tapes during the documentary. Also, by the way Herzog presented it, it allowed for the audience to keep wondering and to imagine their own sounds on the audio tape and what they would be hearing if they were listening to it. Herzog presents the tape as he is with Jewel, Tim's former girlfriend. The audience is focused on Jewel's reactions to Herzog's. I believe Herzog may have wanted this because she probably responded more dramatic than if he were to be shown. Herzog asks Jewel to destroy the tape because it is gruesome, but there is a sense in the way it was filmed that this was possibly not the first time Herzog hears this tape. I don't think it was necessarily unethical because he did not choose to share the tape with the audience, but a lot of it did seem staged including the scene with the forensic scientist.

8. An interview with Herzog's parents is placed near the end of the film to give the audience a sense of his earlier life to see if there were any connections to his behavior as he grew up. Timothy seemed to have a normal everyday life with pretty normal upbringing and even receiving a scholarship to Bradley University for diving. Unfortunately, this is where his life changed. He began to struggle with drugs and alcohol in college and had a near fatal overdose. Timothy just seemed different than everyone. He want a new start and changed his name and headed to California to pursue acting. I believe Herzog waited to show this because he wanted to show the audience why Timothy became such a character and showed his motives in being a grizzly man. Herzog may have waited so long because he wanted to be able to show his own view of Tim's character before the audience sees the real cause of his character.