The Bear Man of Kamchatka

This must have been a well made and fairly innocuous BBC documentary when it was filmed, but it's impossible to watch now without thinking of Timothy Treadwell. Watching Charlie Russell face down an aggressive grizzly at one point, armed only with his deep understanding of bear nature it is difficult not to see a "proto-treadwell", and a quixotic fool. The narrator points out that Russell facing down a bear, shows that bears are not actually dangerous to humans, if treated with respect, but later events would suggest otherwise. Russell was fortunate to meet bears which considered him a complete irrelevance, rather than an annoyance.

Great film but more ignorance displayed. Reading the comment "Disturbing?" I can't help but be reminded about the ignorance Charlie Russell is trying to battle. His perspective is not at all what Treadwell's was. Treadwell changed over time and you can see it in the film Grizzly man. Charlie's attitude is so far from where Treadwell ended up. Did this guy "Disturbing" actually view both films???? There is a whole lot of debate about Grizzles but little first hand knowledge. The Canadian government seems to have a different approach from some places in the US where Grizzles live but not all. Yellowstone NP is very different from GNP for instance. More people in the US could benefit from seeing this film and reading his books. BTW I have spent time around bears.

Poaching, killing endangered animals for sport. Human is most vicious predator (kills not because he is hungry but for sport). If you cannot farm it - you cannot hunt it. Bear Man Of Kamchatka sacrificed TEN years to show what poaching and senseless killing of defenseless animals is. To some, the man is "a nut case", but most people who see the film realize what we should do: we should educate people that if we or our children are to enjoy the world and nature, we must preserve the environment and animals AT ANY COST. Other excellent films I watched: Elephant Diaries, Echo of the Elephants, Amazon with Bruce Perry. Some reviews here refer to some fifty-year old documentary movies about bears, but I have not watched those because fifty years ago situation with environment and with animals was very different. Today, with human population growing exponentially and without bounds, there will be no place left for magnificent and amazing animals who can no longer run away from poachers. Today, killing any animal is not "courageous", but it is cowardly: shooting an elephant or a bear is like shooting a poodle because animals are used to live in very close proximity with humans. Today, defending animals from poachers takes real courage and bravery.