What a whacked out character Timothy Treadwell was.
This documentary and story, told mostly through Treadwell's own video, is about a man who wanted to be a friend of grizzly bears and perhaps maybe be a grizzly bear. He took off for Alaska where for long stretches of time he would "commune" with these huge killer bears and film them. He seemed to think he had nothing to fear because he was operating at a higher level of spirituality and that the bears sensed it. There is footage where he is swimming in the river with a big bear close enough to touch it. But when he does reach out and pets it, the bear violently turns and looks at him as a threat. This didn't seem to bother him.
Treadwell kept returning to the site year after year to document his encounters with the bears. It is amazing to watch him get so close to animals I would turn around and flee from in instant. He befriends a family of wild foxes and in time he is petting them like your family dog. It's obvious watching his videos that he has some sort of emotional problems. He and his girlfriend were killed by a bear hours after he shot his last commentary on video. He didn't respect the fact that bears are wild animals and are predators.
One of the better documentaries I've seen in a while. It's a mixture of a nature show and a man's descent into insanity.
His interesting story is here: http://www.rd.com/content/openContent.do?contentId=19191
