Bears & I
by Bernard McEveety
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Andrew Duggan, Chief Dan George, Michael Ansara, Patrick Wayne, Robert PineDirector: Bernard McEveety
Cinematographer: Ted D. Landon
Editor: G. Gregg McLaughlin
Producer: Winston Hibler
Writer: Jack Speirs
Writer: John Whedon
Writer: Robert Franklin Leslie
DVD: Region Code 0
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround
Format: Color, DVD, Full Screen, Letterboxed, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 89 minutes
DVD Release Date: 1999-09-14
Audience Rating: G (General Audience)
Studio: Starz / Anchor Bay
Movie Reviews of Bears & I
Movie Review: Touching Lessons For All
Summary: 5 Stars
Just out of the military, a young vet travels to the wilderness to meet with a Native American Chief to inform him about his son's death, but also to reflect amongst nature and find a new life-direction for himself. Living in a rented lakeside cabin, the young man, Bob Leslie (played by Patrick Wayne), discovers three small bear cubs orphaned by a local hunter. He decides to take them in as his family until they are old enough to live on their own. This does not sit well with the local tribe which believes their brother the bear should be left to the Great Spirit's will. But the tribe has troubles of their own, as the government has plans for their land to become a national park and wants to relocate them all to a reservation at another lake location. Bob unintentionally gets caught up in the dispute that rapidly threatens the relationships he's tried to form and the bears he wishes to protect.
If you're a fan of the oldschool Disney animal films, "The Bears and I", based on a true autobiographical book, should be quite enjoyable to you as one of their later films with that theme (1974). However, "The Bears and I" is as much about the struggle between the "Indian" tribe and the National Parks people as it is about three orphaned bear cubs frolicking and causing mischief. In fact, maybe more. I've read some disputes over the way Native Americans are represented in the film in contrast to the way the "white man" is represented. Let me just say that neither is depicted in a positive nor a negative light. The main character, Bob, is a bit naive, but he and his new Native American friend, Oliver Red Fern, are the two kind and level headed characters of the film, and the two battling sides are simply presented as stubborn and unwilling to negotiate. Luckily, this is a classic Disney film, and things work out well in the end in quite a clever and satisfying way. There are some clichés and the phrase "you people" is used a lot by the lead, so expect any "Tropic Thunder" fans to be noisy if they watch this movie, but over all, this is a beautiful film with breathtaking imagery, music from John Denver (well, one song used more than once), and some fine lessons about trust, friendship, love, life, and working together. The only DVD of this Disney release so far is the out-of-print Anchor Bay release. So glad I bought it years ago when I first bought a DVD player. Wish I'd bought more of those Anchor Bay Disney DVDs back then. One side of the disc is widescreen and the other is fullscreen, but there are no bonus features. I must admit, this has been on my shelf unwatched since I bought it, but I watched it today, and it was a delightful surprise!
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