The Bear (1989)

Best movie of this year hands down!

I love this movie so much

Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Based on James-Oliver Curwoods' 1917 novel "The Grizzly King", "The Bear" is quite remarkable, a heart tugging and involving drama where animal actors are at the forefront. At the beginning, a grizzly cub is orphaned, and the poor little thing eventually hooks up with an adult Kodiak bear. The big and fearsome Kodiak becomes the cubs' companion and protector, but is itself a tempting prize for a pair of hunters, Bill (Jack Wallace), and Tom (Tcheky Karyo).Written by Gerard Brach ("Repulsion", "Frantic") and directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud ("Quest for Fire"), what's nice about "The Bear" is how well it manages to promote love and respect for Mother Nature. It's a beautifully shot (by Philippe Rousselot), picturesque story, with no shortage of perils into which our four legged heroes are placed. It may be hard for some people to watch at times, although scenes of harm to animals were faked as best as possible using special effects. (Admittedly, the blood looks rather like paint.) It's sometimes manipulative, to be honest, but it still engages the viewer, thanks to a delightful pair of performances by Bart (the Kodiak) and Youk (the cub). Youk in particular is adorable. Wallace and Karyo are good, refraining from being purely one dimensional. Philippe Sarde composed the touching music score.The film is actually not without humour, and even creates some surreal "nightmare" sequences containing striking imagery.Must viewing for lovers of both cinema and animals.Eight out of 10.

After finally watching the movie from start to end for the first time, rather than portions of it as I have when it has occasionally been on TV; I have to say that the film was truly inspiring. Besides the obviously remarkable cinematography and beautiful setting, the film also contained a quintessential coming of age story represented through an animal protagonist. After watching this film, we can all be inspired to continue life and move past the adversity we come across, hopefully with a little help from the friends we make along the way. I highly recommend this film to anyone, especially those who enjoy coming of age stories but are tired of the trite and old Hollywood version.

I have seen both good and bad from director Jean-Jacques Annaud, films such as 'L'Amant' being an example of the former, and 'Enemy at the Gates' an example of the latter. With this movie here he takes you to the edge of the film universe. I'm saying that in the sense that this movie relativises many things. The fascinating thing is that you have bears playing roles here. They are acting, they partake in portraying fictive situations. And they do it with credibility. To liken this to something, the issue of how young an actor might be awarded an Oscar, a César or whatever might be mentioned as one from which similarly tricky questions may stem.As to the story, it is rather simple of course. You could easily re-imagine it with human characters, with some little kid in the focus. Especially if you think of what the older male bear's character would be like then, it could be your typical socially responsible art movie with a lesson. However, telling the tale with bears turns any such consideration totally superficial. What else but a simple story could be credible in their case? Unless you're ready to see talking animals, of course.While the bears 'cast' in this movie have perhaps more of a personality than what you would by conventional wisdom attribute to them, they weren't presented as vegetarians for the sake of being more easily accepted by a moralizing audience. And seeing these bears play as they did, even knowing that in some places the film-makers did use a trick or two, who knows, perhaps I should reconsider how much of a personality a bear might have. Very likely I should, I would add, still under the impression.

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.