Sunday, February 19, 2006

Grizzley Man

Mark and I watched this intriguing documentary on Timothy Treadwell, a troubled actor who took up life in Alaska with the Grizzley's for 13 summers. I was going to write a post, but Christin Taylor beat me to it, and said it so well, I'll let you read her thoughts instead. They mirror my own, and she is a fantastic writer!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Jess, oo I'm glad you watched it too. Now we can discuss! I'm sorry I stole your thunder though.;-)
You know Dwayne and I launched into a whole discussion about the human need for significance, because of this doc.
And of course, our thoughts turned to the harsh reality that these bears couldn't and didn't reciprocate Treadwell's huge investment.
It was so tragic and yet so profound. You know it made me think about, in new ways, our need to be connected, and yet how we are capable of pouring our lives into something that will never return our energies.

Jess said...

Christin...what I thought was interesting was that all this happened after he was overlooked for the cheers position...almost like in being rejected, he felt rejected by the world and it just drove into him this deep, maybe unconscious need to BE somebody...his words and actions continually pointed out what a significant [and dangerous] thing he was doing and that no one else could do it without dying. It was interesting though, to see him give his life for something he loved and believed in.

Christin said...

Jess, yeah remember at the end of the documentary when he goes off on the park rangers? He was definitely bitter! And I wonder how much of that anger (which was being channelled at the Park Rangers) was really his anger at the the world for not "accepting" him, for shutting him out of success (ie Cheers).

Jess said...

Christin, you know what was so interesting about that, is that he had great friends [although they were a little odd themselves]. There were several people in the doc that really seemed to truly love him for who he was, quirks and all...it's almost like he couldn't see that and his need for recognition drove him to almost despise humanity.