Grizzly Man - Movie Review

Grizzly Bear
Originally uploaded by blmiers2.

I watched the documentary Grizzly Man narrated and arranged by filmmaker Werner Herzog. The film is a character study of Timothy Treadwell, the self-proclaimed protector of grizzly bears, one of which violently tore apart and ate both Timothy and his girlfriend. The last character-study-type film I saw was There Will Be Blood, also a tragedy but I find myself reacting so differently. This was reality. Timothy Treadwell was both lost, wanting to get lost, and became lost in such different senses. A back injury had ended his college diving scholarship; thus his schooling and the path of life became so easily unhinged. Acting pursuits fizzled and many relationships were fleeting. He so desired and sought after a significance he could not find in humanity.

Treadwell was an unconventional naturalist, an emotionally mixed up nature worshiper and who became increasingly paranoid and angry at human beings. Most naturalists would work to preserve by minimizing the human footprint, and acknowledged a difference in the nature of man and the nature of animals. Treadwell repeatedly wanted to and did become entangled in nature and thus many say he lacked a healthy respect for nature and the boundary that separates humanity from nature. He had an acute sense of loneliness and did not have answers and was drawn towards nature which cannot choose to reject you in its indifference. Instead, nature became idealized, fantasized, and creatures were anthropomorphized as innocent children. Treadwell seemed to voice both the danger he put himself in while simultaneously overlooking or ignoring its savagery.

It is here we are offered some insight into Werner Herzog whom says the common denominator of existence is not innocence but violence. Herzog was visibly shaken on hearing the audio recording of the two individuals being mauled to death and told a former girlfriend of Timothy's to destroy the tape. Herzog also interjects to differentiate himself from Treadwell when Herzog observes bears as examples of the soulless indifference of nature.

Herzog touched lightly on the psychiatric medication that Timothy was once prescribed, a move likely to minimized additional ammunition to those calling Treadwell "crazy." However, there is enough description of the medication to suggest that bipolar disorder may have been a diagnosis. The film's depiction could also suggest a borderline type personality. Such individuals are characterized as having such a deep sense of emptiness that they are driven to be charming or possessive out of a fear of rejection. Their relational emotions are dialed to express either love or hate but not the in-between. Such diagnoses are only hypothetical musings.

Contagion - Movie Review

I recommend the movie Contagion. I admit, I approached the film with some cynicism: "How many ways can you make an outbreak-type movie?" I was pleasantly surprised. This is Steven Soderberg's treatment of cocaine in his 2000 movie Traffic now applied to diseases. It has less action but is better pacing. Again we have a star-studded ensemble cast, and the aim was realism over melodrama (keeping it true to Soderberg form). What would really happen if humanity faced another race-killing pandemic or at least bring it on the verge of dystopia? The writer Scott Burns did his homework regarding epidemiological investigation and in identifying major players. Well done Burns in laying out a plausible scenario.

Without providing any spoilers, some questions to address after seeing this movie are:

1. From public health/safety/security perspectives, how can we promote the good and minimize the harm?
2. How can we deal with issues of motivating/controlling human behavior?
3. How do we choose whom to protect/save when resource, time and options are limited?
4. How can we disseminate information and resources in a trustworthy manner that would not create mass panic/riot and infrastructure breakdown?

This movie also got me thinking about the greed and idiocy that informed the behavior of many during the recent London riots. Perhaps the further we are removed from suffering and tragedy, the less prepared we are to effectively confront crises.

 Addendum:  It turns out the pathogen antagonist in the movie is based on actual emerging virus.