The Bear (1989)

I'd like to point out that I'm getting tiresome of reviewers either throwing away 1's or 10's and I feel like they are to be used more thoughtfully. At the same time, I cannot stray away from giving this movie a 10 since it's amongst my all-time favorites so I do admit on this being a bit of a double standard. With that said I cannot praise this movie enough. I have no idea how they've done it (If they've violated any animal rights, hoping not of course!) because the craftsmanship of this movie is just amazing. How they've managed to capture the emotions of the animals and made them all perform so naturally is just beyond amazing. I'm so happy that they've used real animals as it just gives this movie an authentic feel. Had it been with today's CGI it would have been a different experience and I'd probably be entertained too but it'll never feel "real" the same way this one did. I like the simplicity of the story and I enjoyed spending time with the bears as well as the hunters. The story doesn't seem one sided and you get the motivation for the hunters and I really like the way the story portrayed them. The two main stars of the movie are of course the bears and as you can guess I loved them both. There was just something heartwarming about their tale and how they connect with each other. One of the few movies to really get me emotional. This is one of those movies I just don't understand why isn't on the top 250 or is more widely regarded. I think I'd to some more digging to see other user's response to it because there must be something I have missed but then again this is solely based on my experience with the movie and "The Bear" is without doubt amongst my top 20 favorite movies and a movie I'd recommend to anyone solely on how mind-blowing well it's made.

I tend to be a genuine sucker for animal pictures. One of the reasons may be because animals are so genuinely unpredictable, unlike most people in the movies these days. You can look into the eyes of most animals and not have a real clear picture of what they are thinking or feeling. So I sometimes find movie-animals more fascinating than movie-people. But the second—and primary—reason is because they bring me to admire the skills and patience that go into making a film. All movies are difficult to make, even the awful ones. That goes without saying. But there a number of them where the tremendous effort does not really paint itself on the screen, regardless of whether they are good or bad, absorbing or unbearable. I tend to be astonishing by animal movies for the same reason I tend to be astonished by movies featuring stop-motion animation: I instantly become aware of the exhaustion the creators had to subject themselves to.To make "The Bear," the filmmakers required their stars, two bears, one an adult, the other a cub, to crawl across landscapes, play around in water, and appear to grow close to one another. The cub is orphaned at the beginning of the picture when its mother is killed in a landslide; the adult is a territorial old male wounded by bear hunters. Now the bears had to perform just right before the camera. They had to not only appear convincing, but maintain continuity whenever the director would decide it was time to move the camera to another angle. I've heard of accounts where the director and trainer would wait all day just to get the bear cub to turn its head in the right direction for a subsequent shot and then keep its head there when they got to that subsequent shot.On that level, and others, "The Bear" is an absorbing movie-going experience. But it is also a glorious massage on the senses. First of all, it looks beautiful. The directing, which consists of numerous cuts, not just long documentary extreme wide-angles, is consistently interesting. Also remarkable is the sound design. The movie was probably shot, mostly, without any sound equipment, for the trainers would be shouting at the bears every second, commanding them what to do and when. So every footstep, every grunt, snarl, bird chirp, gust of wind, sound of a grasshopper, you name it, was developed and integrated in post-production. Yet it all feels so natural; it was not until after I saw the movie that I became aware of this, once again reminding me of how much stress the filmmakers had to put upon themselves.Just imaging the making of "The Bear" puts my memories of volunteering on "The Boarder," a low-budget family drama shot in rural Nebraska, to shame.I also liked the movie for its human scenes. I guess that contradicts part of my opening statement, but then again, there seems to be an exception to every rule when it comes to the movies. The only humans in the movies are the two hunters chasing after the adult bear. Apart from the wonderful acting by Jack Wallace and Tcheky Karyo, I also enjoyed the level of detail given to them. The way, in the opening, the movie breaks down the process by which they hunt the bear. I particularly liked the touch where Mr. Wallace plucks some grass and lets it fly from his fingertips in the wind, so he knows just how much he needs to angle his rifle before he takes the shot. These are pretty interesting characters, and I actually did not mind it so much when their moral denouement at the end flew completely from the realm of predictability."The Bear" only loses its head when it tries to get inside the mind of a bear. Literally. Animals dream. Anybody who has ever owned a dog knows that. But just what they dream or what they see in their dreams is anybody's guess. Now the movie does offer a suggestion: a purple-tinted world with a quirkier-moving version of the animal wandering about in some strange surrounding. The dream sequences are handled through stop-motion animation: the other movie-making process that astounds me. And also I certainly did not mind seeing the animation, it nevertheless broke the shape of the picture. More effective would have been implying that the animal was dreaming and allowing us to use our imagination.

I remember this first as a book I read back in the '50s. I loved it then, and I love the film now.First, I have to address some of the complaints made by other reviewers here.1. About the "fake bear sounds" made by the bear cub. I recall a display of bear cubs at a local game farm; that's pretty much the sound they make, much like a baby.2. The "unrealistic" aspects: The big male refraining from eating the cub; the bear confronting the defenseless hunter and allowing him to go free. Curwood claims in his preface, if I recall correctly, that these events not only really happened, they happened to him! He was the younger hunter, named Jim in the book.3. Bear sex as porn: Get a grip! I think that this was straight from the book, too.Now, to my observations.Much credit has to go to the casting directors and animal trainers. These critters seem perfectly cast! Could any bear cub possible be any cuter than this one? With expressive little eyes, even! I particularly liked the sequence where he chases the frog and ends up imitating it by jumping around after it.The big male is suitably big and ferocious.The sow (female bear) is amazingly attractive and fetching, lolling on her back and practically begging "Come and get it sailor!".The dogs in the book were Airedales, but in the movie were black Dobermans, looking like the spawn of Hell! Now cougars can be pretty appealing looking beasts, but this one has a distinctly dastardly appearance! I especially liked the cub's reaction of studied indifference during the Bear Sex scene, reminding me of the Ron Perlman character in Quest For Fire while his chum was making it with the native girl. Oh! Same director! But how did he get the bear to have that same expression as Perlman?

I liked and disliked many aspects of this movie. The human noises for the cub were quite annoying at times, but I understood the purpose for them. People need a connection so that they can feel the bear's pain. The humans were crucial to the plot... you need conflict. Dialouge was important too, 88 minutes of a person making slurping and whining noises would've been unbearable without people talking. The hunters however were not so scary. They were scary when I was a kid, however as an adult I found them pretty much harmless. The big bear did more damage in this movie then the hunters. I realize the younger hunter had a life threatening experience, but the way the other two hunters cut there rather steep loses and just left was kind of unbelievable. The bear's dreams were creepy even now and the resolution right at hibernation was perfect. The ultimate feel of this movie was warm and fuzzy and the intent was in the right place.