THE BEAR
France, 1989, 93 minutes, Colour.
Jack Wallace, Tcheky Karyo.
Directed by Jean- Jacques Annaud.
The Bear is one of the most spectacular animal movies ever filmed. Adapted from a 1916 novel, King of the Grizzlies, by Gerard Brach (writer for many of Roman Polanski's films), it was directed by Jean Jacques Annaud, director of the Oscar-winning Black and White in Colour as well as Quest for Fire and The Name of the Rose, Seven Years in Tibet.
The film was made in the Bavarian Alps and has extraordinarily beautiful mountain scenery. The bears are excellent, well-trained, able to perform any task required by the screenplay. The other animals include deer, a puma and horses and dogs. The human characters are minimal.
As an attempt to look at nature, certainly read in tooth and claw, the film offers insight into life in the forests as well as the dangers from hunters. There are many acknowledgments to humane and conservation societies at the end of the movie.
1.Impact, beauty, nature, conservation themes?
2.The rugged beauty of the mountains and forests? Panavision photography, the seasons? Rivers and trees, hillsides and mountains? The musical score?
3.The photography of the animals, the close-ups of the bears and their action, the horses and dogs, the deer, the pursuit by the puma, the birds?
4.The composition of the scenes and their beauty, editing and pace? Audiences learning and appreciating nature?
5.The opening, the cub and its mother, the honey and the bees, the licking of each other and their relationship, the avalanche of rocks, the death of the mother, the grief of the cub?
6.The cub alone on the mountains, the encounter with the giant bear? Following him? The river and its dangers? The rescue by the bear? The hunters, the cub lost and the big bear's care? Feeding with the fish and the deer? The puma and the river, the caves? The hunters taking the cub, its making a mess of their camp, their delight and setting it free?
7.The giant kodiak bear and its power, size and weight, its role in nature, surviving? Role model for the cub? Catching the fish, killing the deer? Travel, weight and sound? Being wounded by the hunters? The mountain, the caves, eluding the pursuers? Caught by the hunter, the hunter unable to kill him, his not killing the hunter on the cliff edge? Finally free?
8.Audience response to bears, these giant bears and their standing erect in such strength and size? Their place in nature?
9.The place of the deer, the puma and its prowling, the birds? Survival of the fittest, nature read in tooth and claw?
10.The sketch of the hunters, their experience and lack of experience, relationships? With the horses, the too-quick shooting, wounding the bear? Camping, fear, the horses and the bear attacking the horses? The boat, the dogs? The fur-hunter joining them? Stalking the bear, the dogs and the pursuit, the violence against the dogs? Waiting? Trapped? The hunter with his fear, on the ledge, saved? The return away from the bears?
11.The giant bear and the cub going to hibernate for the winter? The audiences satisfied at the survival of the bears?
12.The final information about conservation? The film raising consciousness about nature? Understanding the animals (humanising them or not?)? Appreciating nature?
