I appreciated Tim's work and his film and I'll certainly rent the movie for the conclusion. I have worked with the Wolf Education & Research Center for the past several years and sympathise with his desire to educate the public about the brown bear and ecology in general.However, I believe Tim went too far with his work and he paid the ultimate price for his lack of discretion. He knew the posed based on his approach to his work. Will we be somehow compelled to feel sympathy for Tim or his cause or will we view his work as more comediac than anything else? I found myself chuckling more at his antics during the film rather than having his video and images making me stop to think about brown bears in their natural habitat.
To a great extent, I agree that Tim's interaction with the bears were highly inappropriate at times and Tim may have caused more damage to the bears than good. When I hear people talking about Tim I hear words like 'crazy' or 'stupid' and not endearing words like 'pioneering researcher'. There are other ways to educate the public without living with bears as Tim did. Documentary photography, in my opinion, is most effective when you allow the subject to act natural - National Geographic and Discovery are prime examples of wildlife documentary style to be emulated. Tim certainly crossed this line and based on what I saw, the bears, on more than one occasion, communicated their discomfort to him. He appears to have lost touch with reality near the middle of the film. He really appears to have lost touch with society. His walking rant about why women didn't appreciate him was a prime example that perhaps he should have stepped back and taken inventory on his approach and perhaps, his life in general. Simply put, Tim appears to have gone mad in the wilderness.
It is unfortunate that Tim lost his life attempting to be a do-gooder but the path he chose left little margin for error. He paid the ultimate price and he can't do any more good for the cause due to his tragic end. What is most tragic about this story is the loss of Amie, who had a intelligent and responsible fear of bears.
What a shame...
Here is a link to the incident report on Timothy Treadwell and Amie Huguenard
http://www.yellowstone-bearman.com/Tim_Treadwell.html
