Bear-related news item the first: Our little friend Butterstick
God Bless the internet - apparently a fellow named Tom over at Unrequited Narcissism had devised a way to hack the National Zoo's online voting system, currently being used to select the name of a new baby panda, such that you can now add the option "Butterstick" to the list of choices. See the news note and a ridiculously cute picture of the panda in question here or learn how you can vote for Butterstick here.
Bear-related news item the second: DO NOT SEE THIS MOVIE.
I have greatly enjoyed, over the years, those documentaries where people who take themselves or their passions too seriously are held up for all to see and find hilarious. Something like Spellbound might be a good example, or large parts of Michael Moore's films. In the case of Grizzly Man, however, the joke is on you - this movie dares you to laugh at it while making you the most uncomfortable you'll ever be while watching a movie. Grizzly Man tells the story of Timothy Treadwell, a failed actor who abjures the company of man to live amongst those he claims as his true friends - grizzly bears.
Now I have worked with schizophrenics, and this guy tops them all. His life with the bears, as he recorded it in a sort of video diary, is punctuated by wild mood swings and thoroughly bizarre ramblings. The high point of the film for me was when one of the bears - who, in a manner apparent to all but Timothy, struggle to tolerate his presence - does what a bear does in the woods and defecates. Timothy rushes to the fecal mass and begins petting it, saying, as though to the bear, "I'm touching your poop! I'm touching your poop!" and then begins weeping.
I won't carry on much more with this. Timothy's friends are as strange as he is, and the whole documentary is like watching a surrealist car accident in slow motion. One might rightly ask why such a movie was made, and that question is answered at the movie's onset: Timothy's story was brought to the attention of a filmaker when, recently, Timothy was eaten by a bear.
Weirdness abounds...
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2 comments:
I haven't seen the movie, so I don't know if this was covered in it but, apparently, there also exists audio of his and his wife (or girlfriend) being eaten (I believe the lens cap was on the camera.) The people who have heard it describe it as the most horrible thing they could ever imagine. The woman even tried to beat the bear with a frying pan while he was being killed. After seeing the special I saw, I would never go see this movie for any reason. It was incredibly upsetting that someone could be so reckless with their own life and the life of someone they "cared about." And instead of stopping him, people cheered him on...
Oh, man, you're so right. The audio is talked about in the movie, but never played. All his friends keep talking about "this is how he would have wanted to go" with no concern for the wishes of his girlfriend - who, by the way, realized Timothy was over the edge and had decided to leave him when the attack happened.
The one real voice of reason in the movie is a bear biology expert who sums it up pretty well by saying that Timothy wanted to be a bear, that such thinking is absolute reckless nonsense, and that his death is not in any way surprising or tragic.
So just try to imagine how much fun the movie is to watch!
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