Yeah, I come away similarly conflicted. I think he was a gravely unbalanced individual who'd found his refuge from a cruel world; and better yet, one where he could play benefactor. To that extent, I think most can sympathise, even without condoning. If he'd gotten into obscure videogames or films, instead, I'm sure he'd be happily posting away right now.RGC wrote: ↑Mon Sep 16, 2024 5:08 pmIt blew me away. Really riveting stuff.
Spoiler
It's been a while since I saw it, but I recall thinking that surely no one could be that deluded, and that perhaps some force within was subjecting him to a kind of penance, making him ritually put his life in the hands of the gods (poised, throat exposed, between the Claws of Damocles). I'm sure he alludes more than once to his crazy mixed up past with drugs and alcohol, so who knows how bad things got, and how badly he needed to atone?
But on the flipside, the one spanner in the works of the atonement theory is the fact he put his girlfriend in that situation. Why did he do that! This pretty much nullifies any empathy I might otherwise have had for the bloke and reduces the case to a tragedy involving a severely mentally unwell man (so destructively unwell that empathy fails to connect), and his impressionable partner, neither of who deserved death.
But then there's the cost, most damningly to his poor bird ofc, but also to the ecosystem he'd appointed himself saviour. At that point, I'm forced to wonder how much of his prior self-destruction was self-driven. I think the doc's most complete image of Treadwell is his splenetic venting at specific - and, I suspect, long suffering - park personnel, those he'd deemed out to sabotage him.
(I'm picturing a pristine blue Alaskan sky, and a National Parks aircraft skywriting "TIM FUCK OFF"
)He needed sectioning, really. :/ A scenario which might've resulted in a comparably crazy, but perhaps less fatal ending to the story. (nuts as he was, Tim doesn't strike me as the "homicidal last stand at the Super 8" sort; more "tackled by mallcops while streaking through the airport") I wonder if he could've been tutored in some way, so his next school visit / late night TV spot might've been tempered by some genuine insight. But then I wonder if he'd consider the notion an affront, given his quasi-shamanism. And also, if the relevant professionals would entertain him in the first place.
(or perhaps JSS/Cardinal Sins?)
)
Cleared by coroner! OR SO THEY SAY 
