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The problem that most people have with a religious view of the environment is that it can lead to an unrealistic view of the world. Grizzly Man gives us a man, Timothy Treadwell, who by common perception is a lunatic. Not only does he live in the wilderness by himself for a part of each year, but he interacts with bears. Most people cannot relate to this man and yet here he is being portrayed in a major documentary see by a large portion of the public. How will his character affect what the public thinks about a religious view of environmentalism? I would think that the effect would almost certainly be negative. This guy is crazy, he is taking a religious view on environmentalism, thus taking a religious view on environmentalism is crazy. The documentary doesn’t do a good job of portraying Treadwell in my opinion. Most of the film is of him playing with animals and it only touches on what he did outside of the wilderness to help protect and educate people. They had the scene in the classroom and his ex-girlfriend mentioned that they started an organization, but these scenes were few and far between. Herzog may have been trying to create a film that celebrated Treadwell’s life, but I feel that the typical view just sees a crazy man who has crazy beliefs that caused his own death. I can’t decide if I feel that Herzog is actually trying to say something about a religious approach or if he just wanted to do a story on this unique guy. Either way, the effect is what it is and while some may be influenced to come closer to nature by his story, I feel that people would generally be alienated. Also, the fact the Treadwell is eventually killed by one of his bears signals to the audience that you shouldn’t do what this man did. He messed with nature and tried to become closer to it and look what happened to him. The fact that he was killed only strengthens the idea that we are separate from nature and that it should be kept that way. Conversely, it could be said that the fact that he was able to live together with these huge bears for 15 years without been viciously attacked once. Treadwell may certainly have been on to something that most people can perceive, but the film does nothing to inspire(and in fact deters) a more religious approach to environmentalism.
I thought the scenery was outstanding so here are some pictures of Katmai National Park
http://www.terragalleria.com/parks/np.katmai.html