Film Review: The Bear (1988)

The Bear is a beautiful film that impressively tells a charming and dramatic story without much dialogue or schmaltz. In some ways, it’s not unlike some films Disney has made over the years, such as Dumbo, Bambi, or many of their old nature documentaries, what with its story of a bear and cub becoming a family after the tragic loss of the cub’s mother, as well as a group of hunters that want to take the bear down. However, the film, for the most part, finds the right line between realistic and played-up that still manages to give the animals character while not straying too far from their grounded nature. And the film trusts the audience to gather what the bears are thinking, feeling, and doing without any voice-over or narration, which I found to be very effective and commendable. Before I end up getting ahead of myself, let’s look at the story.

At some time in the 1800s or so, a young bear cub is enjoying life with his mother in the mountains, but a sudden rock-slide leaves him orphaned and alone. Meanwhile, two hunters are on the trail of a big male grizzly, and the younger one of the two ends up shooting him when he catches him in his sights. The bear runs off wounded and, at some point, mauls the hunters’ horses. This, coupled with a hurt leg the younger hunter gets from slipping on a rock, causes the hunters to get more determined then ever, and the older one goes off to get reinforcements (the younger has to stay at camp for the night) The cub finds the grizzly lying in the river, cleaning his wound, and tries to become friends, though the grizzly isn’t receptive at first. It isn’t until the cub licks the grizzly’s wound that the big bear takes the little bear under his wing, becoming a something of a surrogate father to the cub. However, this new family bond might be cut short, as the hunters’ buddy comes with his dogs and lets them loose to hunt the bear down. In the fracas of the chase, the grizzly and cub get separated, and grizzly disappears out of sight, fighting with the vicious dog pack. The cub gets captured by the hunters and taken back to camp, while they plan their next move on how to kill the furry beast. Will the hunters kill the grizzly? Will the cub be left alone once more? As always, I’ll let you see for yourself.

The Bear is a beautifully made film, with many lovely shots of the lush, green Italian mountains. I honestly didn’t think that the film was shot in Italy, it felt so much more like Canada or the northern US, but I guess that just goes to show that sometimes different places aren’t so different sometimes. Anyway, the bears in this film were clearly well-trained, as they were able to pull off the right sort of actions to convey emotion while still staying believable. You really do feel for the little cub, what with his little whining and youthful curiosity, such as a scene where he chases a frog, trying to figure out what it is and how it works. Actually, this example leads into an interesting element to the film that’s only used once or twice but definitely stands out: stop-motion dream sequences. I have to admit that I was not expecting to see something like that in this film, but I think that they are used in such a way that ultimately proves to be effective. In both cases, the dreams are more of the nightmarish variety, the first being a swarm of spiky-demonic frogs and the second being a remembrance of the mama bear’s death. The use of stop-motion helps the dreams to feel more other-worldly and contrast with the live-action reality of the rest of the film. Plus, it allows the film a chance to stretch its creativity and add more color to the experience, and personally, I always appreciate seeing mixtures of media like this, as I’ve often found that they can enrich an otherwise normal experience and make it more unique. So, hats off to Czech animator Bretislav Pojar for putting those together. I also have to commend the film’s music and atmosphere, which are remarkably quiet for the most part. The film often lets the natural sounds of the space become the soundtrack, allowing the viewer to experience the open yet lonely feeling of being out in the wild somewhere. There is still a score, but its only used in parts and when it makes sense to, such as during tenser action moments and notable emotional ones. In this way, the music never becomes overbearing or overplayed and instead generally compliments the situation rather than telling you what to feel. I do have to note a very interesting moment in the film during the younger hunter’s camp-out, after he hurts his leg and has to stay the night out in the woods. There’s no music, no talking, only the sounds of the surroundings, the golden glow of the campfire, and the blue light of the moon reflecting on the river. The contrast of the golden and blue lights against a pitch-black night creates a very striking image, and also helps to give off a sense of encompassing darkness where things can jump out at you at any moment. In fact, the young hunter sees an object floating in from stage right on the river, and shoots it in a moment of panic, but it turns out to be a simple tree branch, going to show how disquieting and nerve-wracking nighttime can be. Before I move on to my conclusion, I just wanted to mention this one little scene that I thought was rather humorous. At one point, the cub ends up finding psychedelic mushrooms on the forest floor and, as you might expect, partakes in a few of them, which results in a 60s-esque trippy and colorful acid sequence (granted, its not too over the top or anything, but its still funny to see this sort of thing in a movie like this). Definitely a bit of a Dumbo moment going on there.

The Bear is a very good nature drama that tells a classic story of finding companionship in a harsh climate while allowing the audience to experience the realities of nature without much compromise. I would say that this film is still generally safe for families, but it does have a bit of a different feel than most of the Disney films of this type, so keep that in mind. Animal lovers and film watchers looking for a more naturalistic experience that still has a defined story would both certainly get something out of this, and really, I’d recommend it to most anyone that might be interested in a nature story. Take a hike out to the mountains and remember to always respect the wildlife, especially the bears.