The Bear (1989)

Need a Widescreen Re-release

I own the original dual widescreen/fullscreen Tri Star 1999 Region 1 Dolby 5.1 release of this DVD. I saw one review that asserted that widescreen was only released overseas, but that is not true--I have the American widescreen release. Every year my brother asks me to search for a widescreen version for him, and every year, all there is is the Sony fullscreen release. This movie is a 5 star classic in widescreen. Like Never Cry Wolf, it was breathtaking up on the big screen in its original theatrical release. Why is there no current widescreen release of this DVD?

The Tri Star dual widescreen/fullscreen release had the same cover art, and included a 'making of' featurette, behind the scenes documentary, talent files and trailers. Also included was a beautiful 4 page insert, including stunning photos, 'making of' notes, and list of scene selections. Too bad they don't do that anymore.

Why wouldn't Sony have simply released the very same DVD? Why take the widescreen 2.35:1 version off of the disk? If there are more features on the 2000 release, then why not release both widescreen and fullscreen in separate versions?

For both my brother and I, the fullscreen version is NOT something we can stand to watch. Sony, can't you re-release this disk in widescreen? A special edition or collector's edition would be great.

Since few people have this original Tris Star release, let me share the liner notes with you:

Director Jean-Jacques Annaud first came up with the idea to make an animal film while working on Quest for Fire (1981).

Annaud: "When I did Quest, I did a lot of research, trying to find out what was universal about human behavior, and how one could communicate through attitudes and behavior--without the use of language. I discovered that man's behavior was only one of the behaviors of mammals, and that we had a lof of reactions, feelings, and emotions in common with other animals. I was astonished that I hadn't seen any fiction film based on this material, where an animal would be the star of a psychological drama. So I decided to do an entertaining, commercial, adventure and psychological film that would have 'a bear' as a hero."

Explaining his idea to Quest for Fire screenwriter Gerard Brach, Annaud soon received Brach's personal copy of The Grizzly King, an adventure story written by hunter-turned-naturalist James Oiver Curwood. Published in 1916, the novel was based on a true incident where Curwood, while hunting in British Coumbia, had wounded a bear and then lost his rifle down a cliff. The bear returned, confronted Curwood and then left him alone. Enthralled with the story, Annaud had Brach proceed with the screenplay.

While Brach worked on the adaptation, Annaud met with behaviorist Doug Seus to make sure bears could perform the stunts required by the film. Although the trainer could condition the bears to do most anything, Seus believed that any comradeship between an adult brown bear and a stray cub was impossible, due to inherent cannibalistic tendencies. Accordingly, Annaud contacted Jim Henson to design remote-control animatronic bears to double for the two 'stars.' Amazingly, Seus was able to train two adult bears--brothers named Bart and Doc--to actually tolerate cubs, as well as walk with a limp, fish with their paws, climb slopes, etc. Henson's 'bears' would only be used in the scenes that depicted violence.

Shot in the Dolomite mountain ranges of Northern Italy between May 18 and September 21, 1987, THE BEAR, opened in France on October 19, 1988, followed by a worldwide rollout beginning in November; by the time of its U.S. release on October 27, 1989, the $24 million project had grossed over $100 million. Oscar-nominated for its editing, "THE BEAR is to other films about nature what Star Wars was to Science Fiction movies: a redefinition of the state of the art" (Richard Schickel, Time Magazine).

"One of the most entertaining movies you'll ever see." -Robert Osborne, THE MOVIE CHANNEL December 15, 2008

The Bear

Wonderful movie! Hardly no speaking throughout the movie.
Realistic to life's ups and downs.
Classic to add to your collection. November 20, 2008

Nature meets Art...

"The Bear" is hands down one of the Best "Critter Movies" ever made. It is easy to see why the Director has won Academy Awards for some of his films. Particularly exceptional is the absence of a narrator, and a miniscule (less then 5 minutes) of Human dialogue, yet the storyline is very clear.
I strongly recommend watching the "Special features" before the Movie, in order to appreciate the full extent to which the Director went to make the Movie as authentic as possible. He even created a "sound stage" for the Animals to record their "voices", as it was impossible to record sound in many of the scenes, without affecting the behavior of the Animals.
Rarely seen behavior is captured, up close, like raiding an actual Beehive in a tree trunk, and mating. The cinematography is suburb and the Movie does not have that amatuerish "home-movie" look of many documentaries.
This Movie is Amazing...!
July 5, 2008

Nothing short of fantastic!

Plot, music, stars, cineamatography, soundtrack. . . .perfection perfection perfection. One reviewer took exception to the dream sequence. Never having been a bear, but knowing how weird some of my own dreams are, all I can say is, animals DO dream and this interpretation of their dreams was interesting. I found the sequences compelling.
I recommend this film to the universe and beyond. I just bought it and I just watched it three nights in a row,
Superb to watch with kids over 6 and merits discussing with them. Yes, it has violent episodes--but that is the point of the film.
If I could, I would marry Bart and then we could legally adopt Youk : ) April 25, 2008

The Bear

I loved it it was so beautiful. There is a total focus on the bear. Hardly any humans and little speech it is nice to watch and touching. The Foreign filmmaker wanted it that way for the focus and did a nice job of it. It is relaxing for the most part and telling of a story. February 16, 2008

More reviews at Amazon.com ...