In Warner Herzog's film
Grizzly Man, Timothy Treadwell's role frames an interesting dialogue between the role of subject and object as we have discussed in both section and heard discussed in lecture. Treadwell almost ironically becomes the subject of the film immediately, though the first shots are of the beautiful Alaskan landscape. The bears he encounters (many of whom he strangely names strikingly human names such as Melissa), seem to become the vehicle with which he steers his own problems. His frequent confessions towards the camera, the framing of his awkward figure, and close-up talks with us -the viewers- about his problems with drinking, sex, etc. capture the subtle self-indulgence the film really reveals. One wants to sympathize with the almost pathetic efforts he makes to befriend anything - even the foxes when the bears grudgingly walk away from him - yet his violent and aggressive outbursts and modern society leave hints that hey, he might just be a nutter.
Though viewers want (and begin watching the film believing that Treadwell himself wants) the film to focus on the plight of the bears themselves, we rapidly begin to objectify the bears and bring our own subjectivity to play in understanding Treadwell. The bears are in some ways sidelined by the dominant and clearly batty character of Treadwell. Is he mad? Is he harming the bears? (consider the notion of the camera as a weapon-- is he revealing too much?) Where has he come from? Why does he keep touching his hair? (another indication, in my mind, of his desire to make this into a "MTV Real World Alaska" confessional) The questions continue.
What is at once Herzog's documentary and re-piecing together of Treadwell's footage becomes an odd confessional, displaying the quirky life of a man who really, it appears to me, just wanted to be the crocodile hunter.
The sad irony in that, of course, is that they ended up in similar places.
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