TIMOTHY TREADWELL--wilderness advocate , or total nut.

I thought he was a nut before he was killed. I thought he was doing more harm than good. Idjit.

<can I say egotistical and deranged as well?>

He did have an ego problem, I readily admit. He was, totally. living on borrowed time doled out by a crazy mans beliefs or whatever. You gotta see the flick, even with the "stick pod" camera work, youll be amazed at how he managed to make it for the 13 or so yeqrs he was among em.

Ive had to lead a group of investment types on a visit to a northing site that was a drilling site through the ice cap . We came by snowcat and , after a good lecture by our own biologist about how dangerous Polar bears were, we had one small group of 3 wander off to "get some good shots of a small crowd of bears". They got so annoyed at us for intercepting them that they threatened to pull out their investments . I was prepared to write their deposit checks at the spot because we couldnt afford the insurance case anyway, if the bears attacked (and they most certainly consider us lower on the food chain)

Theres anothre flick called "Into the Wilderness" , In which a guy goes to the Alaskan wilderness to set up a life on his own. He originally planned a short stay and he wound up staying about 30 years. He was 58 when he went in and 85 when he came out "He had trouble climbing up on his roof to clear the snow anymore" His was a good flick also, for quite different reasons.
Some-athem , like herdin seagulls.

What happens if you touch a whale's blowhole? Something really bad?

farmerman
The guy grove me nuts\crazy I had a hard time watching not cause he was going to die - I think he was like ADHD

Sigh.

I read a long article about him recently, and I saw a documentary about him beofre his death, I believe.

Is he the fella who used to get in amongst the bears when they were fishing?

There is another thread about him right now somewhere here, which directs you to a site where you can hear him and his friend being attacked and killed...their camera was on with a lens cap over the lens, but the sound recorded.

I guess anything is grist to some people's desire for the enjoyment of other's horror, eh?


He was certainly an odd and interesting fella. I believe he did a lot about conservation in schools?

I certainly have a lot of admiration for that.

never saw the other topic

What happened to him was inevitable. Far too many urbanites have such an obsession with nature that they fail to understand its realities. Unfortunately, Treadwell was certainly not the only idiot of his ilk, so there will continue to be tragedies affecting not only people like him, but others who will fall victim of the policies that idealists successfully encourage.

Many alienated people--among whom i number Treadwell, without hesitation--act out by defying convention. When the convention is social, and you run down the street nekkid, or get drunk and belligerent, you may or many not do any harm, but you likely won't die from it. Sometimes it leads to drunk driving or other potentially lethal activities, and those who do such things without being able or willing to see the consequences for others, are scum. In any of those cases, though, the clown is not necessarily putting his or her own life at risk.

Flaunt the "conventions" of nature, and sooner or later, and usually sooner rather than later, you'll be dead. I have no sympathy for this joker.

I feel that his endorphins were so torqued by his years as a chemical dependent that anything that approximated a dangerous activity would have gotten him. His desire to keep a video log that somehow validated his ramblings and close encounters. The thing is that , had he not been killed and , like the Craigheads, who made a life studying all sorts of bears in Idaho and Montana, he would have added some knowledge about managing bear encounters. Trouble is, it just took one too many encounters and one ber who misread the signals. That the guy was ADHD, never occured to me, I just figured that he was hyper sensitive, but that is one of the symptoms.

The film was quite interesting and Ill always remnember to keep a SW 460 at myside if Im ever fishing in those surroundings.

Tonight, the Discovery Channel is showing the show "Grizzly man" The newspaper calls it a personal descent into madness. SOunds like a big bowl of popcorn is gonna be needed.
Anybody know how to make carmel corn?

I saw the film when it was first run. I found Treadwell deluded and obnoxious but was intrigued by the people who believed in him. Though I did feel that some, like the bush pilot, kept some thoughts to themselves out of respect to the dearly departed.

Random thoughts on the film:

1) Notice how "put together" Treadwell looked whenever he was on camera"? He always got ready for his close-ups.

2) Herzog's commentary was terrific, and his gloomy world view balanced Treadwell's goofiness perfectly.

I t5hought it was a train wreck of a life , but I watched it totally sucked in. SO Im gonna watch it again

Agreed. I see it's on tomorrow night, too. I may try to catch it then...

Dart, have you read the relatively new series by McMurtry starting with the "Sin Killer" . In it george Catlin plays a significant but somewhat comical role along with Tousant Charbonnet in this voyage up the Missouri.

If Treadwell had worn vaguely oriental robes and talked about the oneness of the universe, he'd have been labeled "kook" in 2005.

Since the spiritual fad today is back-to-nature.....

Farmerman--

At least your Mighty Camera Hunters didn't have their kids with them.

I'm a McMurtry fan (his essays on the West are terrific) but haven't read his recent fiction. Thanks for the tip, farmerman! I think Catlin was a genius and McMurtry wrote quite a bit on Charbonneau (sp?) in an essay on Lewis & Clark's journals as the great American epic. It's in his "Sacajawea's Nickname".

I think youd like the series, but hes not too kind on Catlin.

Well, I guess I'd have to see why. From what I know of Catlin, he tried to do right by the tribes, though, of course, he made his living painting their portraits and activities. I admire him, in part, because of the various white artists who attempted this, he seemed to be the most respectful and accurate...

McMurtry portrays him as a conniver who used various means to get his subjects to sit for him . Its all fiction remember , so I wouldnt get too annoyed at ole Larry, hes only trying to "jazz up a novel" by introducing a few historical subjects. Hes done that a lot in a number of his Western books and he tends to choose those characters who, although everyone has heard of, not everyone is as fully knowledgeable as you.

My feeling of Catlin is that he was an ok artist who must have bought his ochres and vermillion colors by the tub (not the tube)