In 2005, Werner Herzog produced the incredibly thought-provoking documentary, Grizzly Man, which allows the audience to see the world through the eyes of Timothy Treadwell, a man who wholeheartedly believed that his purpose in life was to cohabitate with, and “protect” grizzly bears from the dangers of the outside world. For thirteen consecutive summers, he managed to live in harmony with nature on a desolate Alaskan peninsula while filming himself defying the public’s perception that living amongst some of the most dangerous animals in the world was impossible. Towards the end of Treadwell’s thirteenth expedition in 2003, however, his luck ultimately ran out. Treadwell and his girlfriend, Amie Huguenard, were brutally eaten alive by a voracious grizzly bear that Treadwell had ironically filmed earlier that day. Herzog reveals this catastrophe to the audience in the opening scenes of the documentary. By presenting the climax initially, Herzog manages to immediately grasp the audience’s attention.
Although the news of Treadwell’s death was generally considered disheartening and tragic, nobody on record ever claimed to have been shocked or surprised. This
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Herzog instead plays the role of an overseeing investigator. He spends the entirety of the documentary researching every crevice of Treadwell’s past. Herzog provides an equal number of arguments between those that supported Treadwell, and those who criticized him. Even upon the completion of Grizzly Man, Herzog’s exact temperament still appears conflicted between whether or not he agrees with Treadwell’s actions. By refraining from asserting any of his personal biases to the audience, Herzog consequently allowed the audience to formulate their own, unique interpretations of Timothy Treadwell’s lifestyle, death, and influence in the
An attribution to Jon Krakauer’s convincing overall argument is his thorough and plausible research formulated to create Christopher McCandless’s biography. Krakauer conducted a copious set of interviews with various people; he consulted specialists and scientists, and others in their respected professions. Krakauer also ventured in McCandless’s footsteps and studied into other adventurers cases. The “sources” Krakauer uses to devise his argument range from the people “close” to McCandless such as friends and family, people Alex (Christopher) met during his journey, professionals (police officers, rangers, scientists, professors, authors, etc.), those that found McCandless’s body, Alaskan locals, and letters from the readers of his Outside
In the beginning of chapter 8, Krakauer blatantly states all these strangers’ opinions about McCandless’s death to the reader. These honest and blunt opinions that were stated against McCandless causes one to realize that McCandless’s peril was one hundred percent absurd and puerile. After reading others opinions on his death, it made me resent McCandless even more than I did. “Personally I see nothing positive at all about Chris McCandless’s lifestyle or wilderness doctrine.” (page 71) another opinion states, “McCandless had already gone over the edge and just happened to hit bottom in Alaska.”
Treadwell “love[s] [the bears] with all [his] heart, [he] will protect them, [he] will die for them”(Grizzly Man). This is an enormous mistake that Treadwell makes because the bears cannot love him back. Along with all of Treadwell’s problems with alcohol and drugs, he leaves society in search to find comfort in the bears. On the day of Treadwell’s death, it is recorded that he tells his girlfriend to run away as he fights off the hungry bear (Grizzly Man). At this moment, Treadwell has decided that he can’t be as close, emotionally and physically, to bears as he wanted and the one person that loved him was in danger.
The Man Who Lived with Grizzlies “I would never, ever kill a bear in defense of my own life - would not go into a bear’s home and kill a bear.” These were the words of Timothy Treadwell, the main character of the documentary film, Grizzly Man. Directed by Werner Herzog and released on August 12, 2005, Grizzly Man stitches together video footage taken by Treadwell over five years that he spent living among the grizzly bears of Kodiak Island in Alaska to tell a mesmerizing story. Using interviews of people close to Treadwell and Herzog’s narration, the film reveals Treadwell to be not a mentally deranged lunatic, but a passionate, remarkable human being worthy of the audience’s exploration. Grizzly Man effectively translates a cruel punchline
When people isolate themselves from society they develop similar characteristics. In Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, Christopher McCandless, the main character graduates as a top student and makes the choice to give away all his money to charity as well as leaving behind his belongings instead of pursuing a career. He then travels out to Alaska, journaling his experience in the wildness and changes his name to Alex. In the movie Grizzly Man, Werner Herzog uses footage shot by Timothy himself to document what inspired him to live with the wild bears in Alaska. One of the bears Treadwell takes care of tragically kills him; his footage gives a stronger look at nature and its harsh realities.
In chapters 14 and 15 of Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer becomes more than just an investigator or a narrator, he becomes a character. He tells his story of climbing the Devils Thumb, which exposes the similarities between himself and McCandless. This aids to his understanding of McCandless’s motivations, without ever meeting him, due to the parallels in their personalities and family issues. Chapter 14 is devoted to Krakauer’s story about his youthful love for mountain climbing. At age 23, he plans to do a dangerous climb on the Devil’s Thumb in Alaska alone. “
Jon Krakauer has a high amount of respect for Christopher J. McCandless; not only because they have many similarities, but because McCandless searched deep for the meaning of life and did as he pleased. In the book, “Into The Wild,” Krakauer not only tells the story of McCandless, but also of his own life, and how he has been shaped into his own. Krakauer had a deep love for the wild, just as Chris did. Though, the two did not do the same things, they both pursued their passions which made it easier for Krakauer to relate to Chris. Once climbing a mountain, Krakauer had ran into trouble, just as Chris did on his journey.
Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild investigates the life and adventures of Chris McCandless. The author provides information about Chris’ life to illuminate his journey. Krakauer also uses rhetorical appeals to defend Chris’ rationale for his journey. Through Krakauer’s use of pathos, ethos, and logos, he persuades the audience that Chris is not foolish; however, Krakauer’s intimacy with Chris and his adventures inhibits his objectivity.
The Alaskan Bush is one of the hardest places to survive without any assistance, supplies, skills, and little food. Jon Krakauer explains in his biography, Into The Wild, how Christopher McCandless ventured into the Alaskan Bush and ultimately perished due to lack of preparation and hubris. McCandless was an intelligent young man who made a few mistakes but overall Krakauer believed that McCandless was not an ignorant adrenalin junkie who had no respect for the land. Krakauer chose to write this biography because he too had the strong desire to discover and explore as he also ventured into the Alaskan Bush when he was a young man, but he survived unlike McCandless. Krakauer’s argument was convincing because he gives credible evidence that McCandless was not foolish like many critics say he was.
Chris was incredibly careless with some of the most important things a man has in life including life itself. Chris lacked the skill to correctly extract and preserve the meat of the moose that he poached while staying at the bus. The man that gave Chris a ride to the Stampede Trail realized how underprepared Chris was and gave him a pair of boots and even his lunch. Chris’ gear was cheap and otherwise improper. The knowledge that Chris had of the Alaskan wilderness is represented by his simple blunder concerning the change in the river crossing from spring to summer.
In April, 1992 a young man named Chris McCandless walked into the Alaskan bush never to be seen or heard from again. He entered the bush with minimal supplies- a firearm, ammunition, a ten pound bag of rice, a small library, and a few other basic survival items- and confidence in his abilities to survive (Krakauer, 162). Four months later, six hunters found the remains of his decomposing body inside an abandoned bus amidst the thick vegetation of the Alaskan wilderness (Krakauer, 13) . Upon hearing Chris’ story locals and critics promptly labeled him as an “ill-prepared kook”, but were they right? If his critics were correct, then McCandless would not have survived quite as long as he did in complete solitude.
In his short story, “The Most Dangerous Game,” Richard Connell makes it clear that man can be divided into 2 categories: the hunters and the hunted. His characters Rainsford, Whitney, and General Zaroff all have their own beliefs about hunting. Rainsford believes that animals cannot feel anything. Whitney believes that animals can feel fear. General Zaroff believes that God made some people to be hunters and others to be hunted.
He told me about how it was a mystery that takes place in a park; it would only be appropriate because the man was a park ranger himself. As he explains more and more of his story in vivid detail, I become enamored. Soon enough, he begins to tell me about his experience as a park ranger. I was amazed at how much one man could go through. He had first told me about the woman who had her face mauled when she was taking pictures with a living bear inside of the car.
Grizzly Man is a documentary film released in 2005 and followed a bear activist named Timothy Treadwell, he decided that he wanted to live with bears in Alaska. For thirteen years, during the summer month, Treadwell camped in Katmai National Park and Preserve in Alaska. During this time he had to hide from the authorities, he was on a personal mission in order to better protect the population of grizzly bears. He believed the park service rangers were not doing their job well and it was his duty to go out into the wilderness. The film depicts the past by including the original footage from Treadwell, this is because he always had the movie camera with him.
Grizzly Man captures the full persona of a human being who is wildly different than most of us-his ways of life, his thoughts, and his devotion to what he believes in. Herzog takes us into the realm of Treadwell, a nature man if there ever was such an idea. To me, there is this subconscious idea that Grizzly Man is trying to show us that Timothy was in fact, being human. And by being human we are following our instincts.