This piece generates good discussion and provokes a great deal of thought. However, as entertainment, I have mixed feelings. You might be expecting a nature film, “Grizzly Man” focuses more on the man than the bears. Tim Treadwell, why did he spend his summers with bears in Alaska, was he of sound mind? Did he will his own death? At the outset the documentary reveals Tim’s tragic death at the claws of the bears he so loved. Then the filmmaker dangles its audience along with tidbits regarding the circumstances surrounding and leading up to that tragedy. At times I felt manipulated by the filmmaker who spent more time showing us Tim’s self-recorded unstable moments than spectacular images of bears. Some of which could be explained away by the bear-lovers weeks long isolation up North in beautiful Alaska. Some of which will no doubt stay up for debate. In any case, though Tim shot countless hours of amazing bear footage, you’ll only see a few feet in this film. What you can count on instead is sort of a Jerry Springer introspective on Tim himself. His childhood, his demons, his shortcomings as a human and his obsession with the bears. I’m not saying this isn’t interesting – it is. But it is also unsettling and disturbing and at least a little bit suspect. And as I said, I just couldn’t help but feel it was more opportunistic than inspired. I left feeling a somewhat manipulated.

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