haven't seen the movie yet but did catch an hour-long Discovery Channel piece on him a few years back. i'd previously heard of a guy in Montana who went out and hung with grizzlies, even napped with them...and i thought to myself, these people are nucking futs. some teddy bears are not meant to be played with without a large-gauge shotgun.

i've camped and hiked deeply through the Mission Mountains in Montana - prime griz habitat - and it was sketchy. i played a lot of  'warning cowbell' on those trails - a mother and two cubs was spotted at our trailhead the day before we left. a guy'd also been ripped out of his tent and mauled to pieces the year before.

so the first night, we found ourselves having cantaloupe for dessert, we tossed a rind a hundred feet from our fire, and a deer was eating it not 3 minutes later. not long after that, with sweet, pungent, sticky juices running down our chins, we all came to our senses simultaneously, looked at each other, and went, 'what the FUCK are we doing???' we might as well have slathered ourselves in bar-b-q sauce for 'em. a very poor night's sleep that first night, yeah.

the rest of the trip involves glorious balls-tripping on 1,500' cliff edges with mountain goats clanking around on the cliffs beneath us while breathtaking lightning storms charred the far valley to a crisp. no actual grizzly sightings or contact, but i'll always remember that lingering sense of unease and tendency to constantly assess trees for climbability in case of a run-in with Yogi, Pooh and/or Smokey.

anyway, while i wanted to root for Treadwell and his quest to be a partner in a beautiful & peaceful relationship with a dangerous predator, he never seemed balanced to me, and it's a tragic if fairly predictable end to his story. apparently the guy that found the remains of his camp and bodies took the video tape to the family. the video was knocked to the ground but the audio track still captured all the horrible sounds of the gruesome end, and he strongly advised the family to erase it without listening. pity. that would have been dynamite for the 'DVD Extras'.