Grizzly Man

2005 was a successful year for documentaries. Some of the docus were: "My Date With Drew," "March of the Penguins," and "Grizzly Man." I strongly encourage anyone to watch these movies. There is something intrinsically wholesome and uplifting about watching docus. They point us toward the everyday, to real life, and to the world around us. They fix our eyes on what is ordinary, they fix our eyes on one another. And in doing so, the stillness of these real moments becomes vibrant.

Last weekend Dwayne and I watched "Grizzly Man," a documentary about the life and death of amateur grizzly expert and wildlife preservationist, Timothy Treadwell. Treadwell spent 13 summers, unarmed, among grizzlies and ultimately was mauled to death by a bear. I thought, when the story began that it would be about the life work of Treadwell, and about a man who had saved wild grizzlies. Instead, I found a story about a troubled man, who was so conflicted he could only find peace among grizzlies, away from the civilized world. And in a very meaningful twist "Grizzly Man" became about Treadwell's inner journey to find rest, to find purpose, to find Home.

The impact Treadwell made for grizzlies in the greater scheme of things is debatable, but his story touched an inner chord for me. I saw a man who wanted so desperately to live for something greater than himself. He gave himself completely to the grizzlies; he wanted to become one. He acted like them, he "befriended" them, he nosed his way into every part of their lives. And in so doing, broke many federal laws as well as an ancient Alaskan boundary between humans and grizzlies.

One Native Alaskan, a curator and PhD, spoke to the camera frankly about Treadwell while trying to be tactful, "Where I grew up the bears avoided us and we avoided them. They're not habituated to us...If I look at it from my culture, Timothy Treadwell crossed a boundary that we have lived with for 7000 years."

I guess, to sum it up, I thought the documentary would make Treadwell a hero, but instead it made him human. This was a man I understood. This was a story I have felt. Don't we all want to give ourselves away? Treadwell wanted his life to be about more than his drinking problem, and the grizzlies saved him. "Thank you for being my friend," he would say over and over to the bears while touching their noses and cooing to them. "I love you."

"What," I ask myself, "do I want my life to be about? What am I escaping?"

The filmmaker made a startling and profound observation toward the end of the film, which I will not disclose here because I want you to watch it. Let's just say, it smacks of things universal, of things religious, of things deep and quiet.

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Watch it and tell me what you think.