Da Bears

Reviews



I first became aware of the story of Timothy Treadwell from a magazine artical published shortly after his death. Treadwell was a one-time aspiring actor/hippie- type and recovering drug and alcohol addict, who found a sort of salvation among the gizzly bears of southern Alaska. For thirteen summers Treadwell traveld from his home in California to Alaska to live with, and in his mind protect, the gizzly bears living on a federal reserve there. Most of these ventures he did on behalf of an orginization he helped create called Grizzly People, Treadwell would take his video camra with him and document his 'expeditions', then tour public schools back in California educating children about the bears. In 2003 Treadwell and his girlfriend were killed by a grizzly, and in 2005 German filmmaker Werner Herzog assembled selections from Timothy's 100+ hours of video, interspersed them with interviews of those who know him, and created the award winning documentary Grizzly Man. I just can't do justice to Treadwells story, he's a strange character worth spending the films hour and fourty-five minute running time with. Though Bears are the main animal attraction of the film, I preferd the time spent with the foxes.

As an appropriate follow up to Grizzly Man I also watched director Jean-Jacques Annaud's 1988 film, The Bear. I could never sit through this whole movie as a kid, but as an adult I found it had a simplicity and near-Disney quality about it that I liked. However due to its slow pace and minimal story, I doubt that I ever watch it again.

In an effort to attract attention to its comming fall line up, NBC has released the piolts of severl of its upcomming shows on DVD through net flix. Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip is the new ensemble comedy/drama from West Wing creator Aaron Sorkin. Let me tell you its good stuff, though NBC is taking quite a programing risk by also schedualing a similarly premised Tina Fey helmed sitcome on its line-up, both shows take place behind the scenes of an SNL-type program. Also promising is Kidnapped , which stars Jeremy Sisto (Brenda's crazy brother on Six Feet Under) as an expert retrever of kidnapping victams. The program follows one kidnapping per season, with the first year's subject being the son of rich couple Timothy Hutton and Dana Delany. Also featuring Delroy Lindo Kidnapped strickes me as 24 meets SVU.