29th JAN, 2011
I saw a movie "Grizzly Man" finally. For long time ago, my friend recomended me to have a look this movie.
I was just shocked and said 'How can he do that?' when I heard the story of Timothy Treadwell first from the friend. I didn't realize that that is a sort of deep story.
Then, when I started to see the movie's first part, I realized as soon as the movie started that the Alaskan wildness and grizzlies that Timothy filmed was exactly beautiful. My eyes had been cemented on those. It was breathtaking.
I just said 'breathtaking' which doesn't mean that he filmed with high-resolution or he had sense of angles and so on, it was a deep beauty.
The movie goes on and I already can't stop following the Timothy filmed, then the movie starts to tell the story about Timothy, why he needed to take such a risky work, with interviews and comments by people, family and friends of Timothy.
The work, putting himself in the grizzly's world instead of human's, which means the beauty he filmed and the darkness he had was two sides of the same coin. Interviews and comments about Timothy and the tragedy as was expected, were denial, confusion and sometimes comprehensive.
Those negative comments, denials and confusions, are not only seems come from a Timothy's heroism but also from that he had broke a human's taboo that a human had been eaten by a grizzly.
As for the comprehension, I can find it from filmmaker of this movie, Werner Herzok, in his words in the movie that,
"He was fighting civilization itself."
"It is the same civilization that Thoreau and John Muir that into the wild."
In the movie, I saw a comment of a person of National Park Service. He explained his incomprehension for Timothy's work, protecting grizzly that already numbered, under the control by the government. The comment said "6%" of grizzly are allowed to be hunted per year with industrial reason. That is under the control to keep enough stable number of grizzly.
On the other hand, I would try to compare in the officer's comment's of "6%" and the person who saw the movie and just said about Timothy clear up "Stupid".
If discuss in details, that means "several %" of human can be died to protect grizzly which is unnecessity to protect. I guess the reason is "several %" of human cannot live in the human's world stably even if he lived.
I think if you ignore Timothy with this way, you make exactly same mistake Timothy did that you don't find the difference between human and grizzly.
I am neither an environmental activist nor a filmmaker. I am just a human who saw the filmed.
There is difference between human and grizzly, that is the reason which makes chaos and deep beauty. That was what I saw on the film.
In the last part of the movie, Herzok commented about wild nature Timothy filmed. Said,
"That is not so much look at the wild nature, it is inside into ourself, our nature.
"And that for me, beyond his mission gives meaning his life and his death."
I agree that the wildness Timothy filmed has that sort of deep issue.
In addition, I'd like to say that the beauty what I saw in the film made me feel some quiet feeling, isolation.
This story, about civilization of Timothy, reminds me about Chris McCandless "Into The Wild", and about Jacques Mayol who was modeled in "Le Grand bleu".
You may say Jacques Mayol seems different, but in the movie, his world was into the water instead of the land.
All I know about them is from watching those movies though.
I fantasize that Luc Besson who filmed a story modeled Jacques Mayol, and Sean Penn who is an actor and chose Chris Mackandless's life on film as a filmmaker, both choices were meaningful as filmmakers.
In the end, I would like to add a Japanese documentary movie "A" directed by Tatsuya Mori. He started filming a Japanese cult, Aum (the name has been changed to Alef now), before Aum board member made terror attacks in 1995.
The most shocking scene i saw on the film was, one day, after the board member had been arrested after the terror attack, rest of members of Aum and National Public Safety made a small trouble on a street.
The trouble showed me how National Public Safety autocratic to watch Aum.
It was small trouble but it hinted me that Aum and National Public Safety both problematic. This is sort of taboo subject for Japanese mass media.
