You should not judge a man's life until you have walked his path. It astounds me how many people have judged Timmy incorrectly. I actually liked the movie, but I didn't interpret Timmy's behaviour as most people did. Everyone says he was a nutcase, a crazy fool with a death wish. In fact, Herzog seems to imply this. Well, Timmy wasn't a nutcase at all. We all need something in our lives to make us feel important. For some people it's a job, for others a relationship. For Timmy, it was bears. Yes, Timmy did something dangerous. But people do dangerous things all the time. Do we think racecar drivers are nutcases? No. How about people who climb Everest, where every 1 of 10 climbers gets killed? What about an astronaut, blasting off into space, knowing that two space shuttles have exploded in the past? These people are seen as normal, as courageous, even as heros. There is NO difference between what Timmy did and what these poeple do, except that what he did was not socially acceptable. But besides all of that, you need to realize how many hours Timmy spent with the bears. Something between 30,000 and 40,000 hours over 13 summers. How long is that? Well, if a work week is 40 hours, then Timmy spent the equivalent of 17 years full of 5 day work weeks with the bears without incident. Now, imagine YOU do something, Monday to Friday, 8 hours a day, for 17 years, and nothing happens to you. Wouldn't you, at the very least, feel some sense of personal safety? Of course you would. Timmy wasn't crazy for feeling safe around bears. They didn't so much as scratch him for the equivalent of years and years! Finally, Timmy didn't take stupid risks. He knew that all bears weren't safe. Sorry to all you people who think that bears are just man-eating monsters, but they're NOT. In most cases a bear will do everything to avoid a human being and to avoid trouble. But they do have personalities. Think of your pet dog if you need an example. Some bears were agressive, dominant males in particular. Most bears were not. But Timmy (and rightly so) knew which bears posed a threat and which didn't. And he was very, very careful around those bears that were dangerous. Timmy had a gift; he understood bear behaviour better than many bear biologists with dozens of years of experience. And he was right about their behaviour, he knew what he was talking about. He knew how to read them, and he was always correct. Is it any surprise then that he felt safe around bears? Then there is the topic of Timmy's seemingly crazy-sounding "confessionals" on tape. I didn't see anything crazy about this. People get emotional and angry all the time. I've seen people get a lot angrier than Timmy, and not alone in front of a camera, but in real life among other people or even in public. And I'm sure he never really meant to have the angry, emotional footage showcased. He was human, give him a break. Some complain that Timmy talked to bears. So what? Have you seen how peole talk to their dogs? Even huge dogs are often talked to in the same way Timmy talked to the bears. Nothing crazy there. Timmy came from a difficult background. It's true that he had a troubled past. It's true that he wanted to be famous. It's true that he wanted to be the main character in his movie. But this made him feel important, a basic human need. We all look for things that make us feel important, because it gives us purpose. We all want to be the main character in our lives. Timmy just went about it with bears and a camera. Crazy? Well, not if you look at the amount of reality TV shows out there. How many of those people wanted to be famous? And how many people watch those shows? There's nothing crazy about that. Timmy wasn't a bad man. So many of the people who knew him, liked him. He was a nice guy. He was troubled, yes, but a good person. He certainly didn't "deserve" to be killed by a bear, no more than someone who takes a car to work (which by the way, is statistically riskier than living in bear country) deserves to die in a car accident, or a racecar driver deserves to burn to death. I think he should have carried bear spray, just in case. But I know why he didn't. If nothing bad happens to you for years and years you begin to believe in a certain margin of safety. I don't agree with Timmy on that point, but he was more of a risk taker than I am. Finally, the "bears" didn't kill Timmy. It was one, specific, particular bear who did. The bear was old and cranky, and probably hungry and desperate to feed before the end of the season. What this bear did is extremely rare. The bear appears in the film in the scene where Herzog says Amie filmed because the shot was hand held. He was big, he was red. His lower lip stuck out, possibly due to a past injury. Could it be that the injury made it difficult for the bear to find food, therefore making him more desperate? We'll never know. We should be so lucky to know a person like Timmy. Timmy was caring, sensitive and had a good heart. Was he a little strange? Yes. But if you look closely enough - so is everyone.
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