Interesting doc, but it's a hit piece.

I had no idea who Timothy Treadwell was when I went into this documentary. I found it fascinating, but it also came across as a hit piece, so I've always taken it with a grain of salt.

The gist of the movie is that he was this moronic dudebro who "got lucky" that he didn't get killed for so long. The thing is, though, is that if he was half as crazy as the film made him out to be, he wouldn't have lasted out in the wilderness as long as he did. The average idiot doesn't even make it past the first encounter (see: photographers, tourists defying ranger instructors to keep distance, etc.). So, how was it possible that he made it for 13 years?

People will say, "He was killed, idiot." True. But experts who've been working with or living with animals for years have also either been severely mauled or killed, some in less than 13 years. I'm talking zoo handlers, trainers, circus performers, that woman who owned the chimp that mauled Charla Nash, etc. And he was killed exactly the same way they were--he came across an animal that was more unpredictable than usual for whatever reason (mating season, starvation, nursing, etc.).

Don't get me wrong: I understand why people want to denigrate Timothy Treadwell. He was being socially irresponsible by presenting bears as cute and harmless. So, I don't see a problem with people calling him out for that. I think that if he was guilty of anything, it was being another attention seeker chasing fame in a needlessly dangerous way (it looks like he was hoping to become the next Steve Irwin). But I don't think he was Chris McCandless. McCandless was in all respects an arrogant fool completely in over his head.

Treadwell doesn't strike me as a fool. Like anyone encountering wild animals, he made the mistake of thinking that if he gained enough experience with them, he'd be safe. But as Siegfried and Roy, Steve Irwin and as so many other death show, you are never safe because the more you're around wild animals, the more you up your chances of getting killed or mauled by one.