I agree. I found it really sad how Treadwell insisted that the bears (and all the other animals) were just big furry balls of love deep down, and how desperate he obviously was to be one of them--how he truly seemed to think he *was* one of them, as if wishing it could make it so. I think it was kind of a combination of obsession and arrogance, a determination to see himself as somehow better and more special than everyone else. (Which, granted, we all have a little of that, but his was seriously unhealthy, and would have been even if it hadn't literally killed him.) His "How dare they [the US gov't, in the form of park rangers] oppose me," speech is the most telling moment of the film, imo (followed by his chasing bears away when other people tried to come see them).
I read an article about Treadwell by a man who basically said, "That Tim survived as long as he did isn't a testament to his skill, it's a testament to the patience of bears," and I have to agree. I think Treadwell was gifted with animals, absolutely, but he still didn't truly understand them. He saw their lack of caution--or rather, their less caution--as a sign that they'd accepted him, loved and trusted him, when really all it meant was that they didn't care enough to chase him away. That, to me, is really the fundamental problem, the real harm he did to those bears: he thought they trusted him in particular because he was special, but all he'd done was teach them to be less cautious of humans in general. If you're trying to make things difficult for poachers, you really couldn't have done a worse job, lol. I honestly wonder what the consequences were in that park (if any, of course).
*****
People said love was blind, but what they meant was that love blinded them.
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