Believe it or not, there are animal movies that don’t involve cartoonish ocelots singing the praises of junk food, or vicious anacondas terrorizing an entire town.
“The Bear” (1988) is a remarkable, almost dialogue-free nature film with a thrilling plot. Made by French director Jean-Jacques Annaud with highly trained animals and some modeling techniques, it tells the story of a little bear cub whose mother is crushed under a landslide while digging for honey.
The bear cub takes off cross country, through stunning Canadian scenery, and soon teams up with an enormous grizzly bear who is himself being chased by tenacious hunters. They strike up a partnership of sorts, and lumber across the mountain slopes for more adventure. Annaud’s film has nail-biting scenes of bears fording rivers, fighting cougars and downing caribou, heeding the call of nature without turning it all into one big Disney-fied potty joke.
Humans, their menacing guns and their odd speech patterns are mere interlopers in a landscape this large, and Annaud makes their appearance count. Without being too heavy-handed about it, Annaud uses the hunters to explore questions of revenge versus live-and-let-live.
The movie is perfect for your animal-adoring children, but remember that the wild kingdom can be brutal – creatures get hurt in this film, and I have at least one young niece who would cringe at the sight of a bleeding dog.
Each Tuesday, Michael Booth uncovers a movie gem for rewarding family entertainment. Reach him at mbooth@denverpost.com; find the Screen Team blog at denverpostbloghouse.com.
