Grizzly Man Documentary Analysis

Despite his inexperience at living off the land, Chris Mccandless managed to survive in the Alaskan wilderness for a time. His adventures across the United States contributed to honing his skills at surviving with inadequate supplies, little money, and few essential tools. Unfortunately This was not enough, and his inexperience on the finer points of outdoor living and general knowledge of particular subjects proved to create more challenges, and finally this inexperience killed him. Particularly, with his successful kill of a moose we see a perfect example of his ignorance, “Then on June 9, he bagged the biggest prize of all: “MOOSE!” (166.) His tendency to brashly tackle everything head on with will and determination ultimately led to his demise, “Overjoyed, the proud hunter took a photograph of himself kneeling over his trophy, rifle triumphantly overhead, his features distorted in a rictus of ecstasy and amazement.” (166.)

In Jon Krakauer’s nonfiction book, Into the Wild, we follow how humans love the wilderness, the strain of father son relationships, and for the majority of the book a young adult named Chris McCandless. We see mostly through Chris’ eyes just how much the wilderness can entice young adults as well as how important crushing news of one’s father can change your life. McCandless was an angry pseudo adult who couldn’t handle a sizeable change in his life. He was too stuck on it being his way that he rarely could bring himself to accept help and improve his ability to actually survive. However, there was some good about McCandless. His search for himself and the truth were great intentions despite the flawed approach.

Tony Krawitz’s 2011 documentary, The Tall Man features the narrative of Cameron Doomadgee, an Indigenous Palm Island resident, who mysteriously wound up deceased in a prison cell, just 45 minutes after being taken into custody by Senior Sergeant Christopher Hurley for drunkenly singing ‘Who Let the Dogs Out’. The documentary takes viewers on a journey through the series of events that led to Hurley being rightfully accused of manslaughter for the death of Doomadgee.

When Chris was on his journey he studied Henry David Thoreau and he underlined the word “truth” in a line from Walden saying: “ Rather than love, than money, Than fame give me truth”. Chris also felt that the life he should live should be away from civilization and nature is where real life exist. While in the Alaskan bush he wrote in his journal stated “I am reborn. This is my dawn. Real life has begun.”(168) . McCandless sees regular society to be insufficient for anyone who wants self-fulfilling life. These views are similar to Timothy Treadwell’s view because he too didn't find much value in regular society but he found it in nature. Treadwell communicated best with bears and seemed to understand them more than humans and the way they live. He often talked to the bears like he was talking to a baby child in the documentary showing how much he adored nature. Timothy and Chris always liked the truth within nature and they both believed that it was not attainable through society.

Doc and his wife Juliette raised their children in an animalistic way. Doc uses observations of nature and mimics them to reach a natural state of equilibrium. At first docs ideas seemed innocent and based off good intentions, but when he disciplines his children for not obeying his “law” he takes it to the next level, in an extremist way. In the documentary, eldest son of Doc, David, shares a story with us, he remembers one day while growing up that one of

Stephanie Soechtig, is an award-winning film-maker, and director and producer of the nonfiction documentary Fed Up. She began producing documentaries for network news programs such as Primetime Live and 20/20, while also working for Good Morning America during the 2000 presidential elections and the O’Reilly Factor. In 2008, Soechtig partnered with Michael and Michelle Walrath to start Atlas Films, which provided inspiration and education to consumers on the most controversial topics. So far, Soechtig has been awarded the “Best Documentary Feature” for Tapped (2009), “People’s Choice Award” for Under the Gun (2016), and Fortune Magazine named Soechtig as being one of the “Most Innovative Women in Food and Drink” (Biography). In 2014, Soechtig’s “Grand Jury Prize” nominated film Fed Up (2014), narrated by TV Journalist Katie Couric, was created in hopes of unveiling the hidden secrets of the food industry by using statistical analysis and research expert’s testimonies to inform viewers of the direct impact that the food industry has on the health of our nation’s most vulnerable population—children. Soechtig and Couric present the argument that the roles of our government along with the interests and processing methods of food industries are ultimately responsible for the increasing rates of childhood obesity in the United States.

After viewing the documentary Paper Tigers, please answer the following questions. When possible, use scenes/examples from the documentary to support your answer.

     Chris McCandless to me was a very intelligent but stubborn man. He didn’t care about how his family felt. All along his quest to the stampede trail Chris was kind to strangers and others but neglected the fact that his family back home worried about him. In the end Chris became at one with nature but realized that his surroundings (meaning family

Since 1968, there have been at least 25 films made that portray the events of the Vietnam War. Historians have to ask themselves when watching these films, "Did the fictional character represent historical figures accurately? Is this how a soldier would react in this situation?" The point of view of the director of the film can change with simple alterations in camera angles. For example, a view from the ground of a battle seen can show how the innocent people had the war in their own backyards. The view from a helicopter can show Viet Cong firing rounds at American troops and the troops can't tell the difference between the innocent and the enemy. The audience feels empathy and sympathy for the person from whose point of view the

I want to understand why Chris McCandless came here, what he was feeling at the culmination of his journey, what he found in the heart of the Alaskan bush. I don’t even bother to hope for answers, but I crave the details; the elk prints and bird songs, the night skies and the way the streams taste and the other fragments of this place that can’t be gleaned from the book or the movie or the online discussion forums. I need to connect with Chris’ story on my own, outside of the Into the Wild painted by Jon Krakauer or Sean Penn or Ron Lamothe.”- {Dave Korn 2011} So many people want to know and see what McCandless went through most of them don’t agree with Shaun Calllarman that Chris “had no business going into Alaska with his romantic silliness.” , Most people saw it very beautiful and crazy going into the wilderness. People now want to leave their life’s to see what Chris saw. Chris isn’t the only that crazy and have the same feeling going into the

This documentary has a voice which is the most important part of any movie, furthermore, it has it own way of living and breathing and speaking to

Timothy Treadwell was a living representation of the romanticized relationship between humans and nature. Not only did he live alongside wildlife, but he spoke of having dominance over the bears he interacted with. Unfortunately, his eccentric passion and devotion to bears lead to his tragic death, but the videos of his experience live on. Herzog uses them to depict Treadwell as a troubled man descending into the depths of his own disturbed mind. He seems to want the interactions with bears to be something that should be feared, rather than of admiration and joy as Treadwell had intended.

Werner Herzog directed a documentary film called Grizzly Man to show viewers how much interest Timothy Treadwell demonstrated towards human nature and how he demonstrates human nature through himself. Timothy Treadwell spent thirteen long summers in Alaskan Peninsula. He went to go portray his love and protection to the wild life and grizzly bears, which lead him to his miserable death. Herzog creates a sequence of scenes, comments, and interviews from people who is well connected directly or indirectly with Treadwell. His purpose of directing the Grizzly Man documentary through Treadwell’s own film was to convey the viewers the difference of human beings and the wild life animals. Herzog’s main effective argument was to convey how courageous and how insane Treadwell was to spend thirteen summers in the wild life of grizzly bears.

I can’t say that I honestly enjoyed watching it, but then again that is not the point of a documentary such as this. This documentary, although not the most exciting to watch, forces you to constantly evaluate and consider the information being presented to you. There were times I would have to rewind just to give my thoughts a second to catch up, and in that sense, the film fully accomplished its goal. In discussing complicated ideas such as education, employment, and obedience it showed me just how narrow my scope of the world is, and I think I can better understand what the narrator meant and how he felt when he said: “almost everything I was brought up to believe turns out to be

Although most of the material was that in the movie related to something we have learned previously in the course, it still offered new insight to certain aspects. One of the things I liked most about the documentary was as stated before was its ability to incorporate relatively everything we learned in the class. Such as having people from other documentaries, books and articles. Another thing I liked about the documentary was how despite reviewing a lot of material, it also gave real-life accounts of what was going on during that time. Overall the documentary sparked the interest in me to understanding more about how minorities, homosexuals, and hemophiliacs were treated before after and during the AIDS