I recently watched this film again, may be for the 100th time. Every time someone watches this film, they always tell me what a nut case Timothy Treadwell was and nothing more. Yet to me, this is a fascinating film. Werner Herzog is such a brave director to have made this film even though the first reaction for most people is that Timothy is just a madman.
I cannot help finding parallels between Timothy and so many yogis that I meet, including myself. This is a typical day in Mysore, for the westerners who hang out there for months. They return to Mysore summer after summer, just like Timothy going back to Alaska. Their agenda is fascinating.
The yoga class for the morning supposedly starts at 6 am. But all the yogi nutcases are there by 5.30 am. So the class starts at 5.45 am instead of 6. This can happen only in Mysore. After this, they talk about all things mind, yoga, stillness and mostly what sounds like onset of madness to me. Most yogis then attend a back bending session which is one of the toughest classes, I hear. Then some more self practice or free classes by yogis. At the end of the day, yet another astanga class. I am usually done for the day after my first astanga class in the morning and do not seek enlightenment at such a pace. But the Timothy yogis do yoga all the waking hours running from one class to the other watching their grizzlies and sometimes recording it on film. I am not sure who the grizzlies are in this movie. May be it is the wild minds of the yogis. The Mysore story ends with the mind eating all the yogis. Consumed, that’s what it is.
I wish someone would make a spoof of this film with Mysore yogis as Timothy. That would be such a fun film to watch.
film they always tell me what a nut case Timothy Treadwell was and nothing more. Yet to me,
this is a fascinating film. Werner Herzog is such a brave director to have made this film even
though the first reaction for most people is that Timothy is just a madman.
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