Grizzly Man Page #3

but not in the true sense of religion.

I think perhaps he wanted to

mutate into a wild animal

as he says in this last letter.

He says, "I have to mutually

mutate into a wild animal

to handle the life

I live out here."

I think there's

a religious sense in that

in the sense of connecting so deeply

that you're no longer human.

And that is a religious experience.

Here's another example.

"There are many times that

I feel death is the best option.

My work would be

much more seriously looked at

and possibly make the difference

that in living, I can't do."

I think that was

sort of a paradox for him.

That he felt not worthy enough

to get his message across at times.

And so, maybe,

in the drama of death

his message would be more poignant

and reach out to more people.

But his message stirred

a lot of controversy.

The Gaedes have collected

thousands of angry letters.

I can read you some of...

I picked out three

of these vitriolic hate mails.

They cover the gamut.

"Stereotypical environmentalist.

Just as long as the donations

keep coming,

furthering the antihuman

eco-religion as a noble cause,

who cares about reality?"

And the very idea

that Timothy made a lot of money

doing what he did

is absolutely preposterous, 'cause

he's one of the poorest people we knew.

Another one.

"A bear diet consists

of liberals and Dems,"

meaning Democrats.

"A bear diet consists of liberals and Dems

and wacko environmentalists

that think the spotted owl

is the most important thing in the world.

We need to somehow drastically increase

the number of bears in America,

especially in such key spots

as the Berkeley campus."

I, too, would like to step in here

in his defense,

not as an ecologist,

but as a filmmaker.

He captured such glorious

improvised moments,

the likes of which

the studio directors,

with their union crews,

can never dream of.

Okay.

What are you doing up there?

That's where you're sitting?

There. Go.

Go! Go! Go!

Come on! Come on!

Come on! Run home!

Come on!

Hi.

Hey, you little champion.

Hi. How are you?

You're such a good champion.

I love you. I love you.

Get up there,

and guard that tent.

I'm here with one of my favorite bears.

It's Mr. Chocolate.

Hi, Mr. Chocolate.

He is the star of many people

across the country:

Children, people, adults.

And we're here

in the Grizzly Sanctuary.

But I'm wrapping up my work

in the Grizzly Sanctuary. Why is that?

Because I'm on my way

to the Grizzly Maze

where bears do not have human protection,

but are under human threat.

Bears like Aunt Melissa. Bears like Demon,

Hatchet, Downey and Tabitha.

And it's time for me

to go to protect them.

I wish I could bring

Mr. Chocolate with me.

You'd be great protection there.

He's been with me for over a decade, and he's

been my good friend and I appreciate it.

Thank you, Mr. Chocolate.

I'll see you again next year.

No. I'll see him again at expedition...

end of this expedition.

I'll be back here to join you again.

Back with Mr. Chocolate.

But first, it's off to the exciting

and often dangerous Grizzly Maze.

Now the scene seems to be over.

But as a filmmaker,

sometimes things fall into your lap

which you couldn't expect,

never even dream of.

Hi, Spirit.

There is something like

an inexplicable magic of cinema.

Hi, Spirit.

Well, I'm here with Mr. Chocolate

and Spirit, the fox.

And here comes

some of her pups. Yea!

Here comes

some of her pups.

Hi.

Hi, Spirit.

Hi, Spirit. Hello, baby.

Coming down.

What are you doing to that hat?

Where's that hat going?

Hey, who's stealing that hat?

Let me see that hat.

Ghost, I want that hat.

Man! Ghost is bad.

Ghost, what are you doing

with that hat?

Ghost, that hat

is a very important hat.

Drop it! Hey!

Oh, goddamn it!

I can't believe this!

Ghost!

Ghost, where's that f***ing hat?

That hat is so frigging valuable

for this trip.

Ghost, you come back here

with that friggin' hat.

If it's in the den,

I'm gonna f***ing explode.

Ghost, where's that hat?

It's not okay for you to steal it.

Oh, man!

Oh, man!

It's a friggin' den.

One of the things I've

heard about Mr. Treadwell,

and you can see

in a lot of his films,

is that he tended

to want to become a bear.

Some people that I've spoken with would

encounter him in the field,

and he would act like a bear,

he would "woof" at them.

He would act in the same way a bear

would when they were surprised.

Why he did this is only known to him.

No one really knows for sure.

But when you spend

a lot of time with bears,

especially when you're in the field

with them day after day,

there's a siren song,

there's a calling

that makes you wanna come in

and spend more time in the world.

Because it is a simpler world.

It is a wonderful thing,

but in fact

it's a harsh world.

It's a different world that bears

live in than we do.

So there is that desire

to get into their world,

but the reality is we never can because

we're very different than they are.

The line between bear and human

has apparently always

been respected

by the native communities

of Alaska.

We visited the curator

of Kodiak's Alutiiq Museum,

which had recently been raided

by tourists out of control.

Somebody wanted it so much,

they cut the paw off.

They stole it from here.

It was quite tragic for us

because it's on loan

and they came in and took it.

And how do you see

Timothy Treadwell's story?

I see it as something that's both...

It's tragic because,

yeah, he died

and his girlfriend died

because he tried to be a bear.

He tried to act like a bear, and for us

on the island, you don't do that.

You don't invade

on their territory.

You...

When you're in their territory,

you know you're there.

And when you're nearby,

you make sure that

they know you're around.

You know, for him to act

like a bear the way he did,

would be...

I don't know.

To me, it was the ultimate

of disrespecting the bear

and what the bear represents.

But he tried to protect the bears,

didn't he?

I think he did more damage

to the bears than he did...

Because when you habituate bears to

humans, they think all humans are safe.

Where I grew up, the bears avoid us

and we avoid them.

They're not habituated to us.

If I look at it from my culture,

Timothy Treadwell crossed a boundary

that we have lived with

for 7,000 years.

It's an unspoken boundary,

an unknown boundary.

But when we know

we've crossed it,

we pay the price.

Jewel, I apologize

that this wristwatch

is still in an evidence bag.

However, I want you to have this watch.

I think that it is important

that you have it.

You knew Timothy for a long time.

My understanding is that you lived together

for three years.

You were very close to him.

Yeah. He was my boyfriend for three years.

He was my boss.

He was a lot of things

to me in 20 years.

I understand that. And that's the reason

I want you to have this.

This really should be yours.

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