On B List of Movie Reviews
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The Bear (1988)
Rate:
4
Viewed:
9/25
9/25:
Way too much animal violence.
I honestly thought The Bear was going to be family friendly, but it's unacceptable. At one point,
two bears have sex, and this is what the filmmakers want me to see? No wonder why Hollywood is so perverse.
How about the drug-fueled trip the cub had by eating mushrooms? Ridiculous stuff.
There's no story. Over ninety minutes is spent on bears. That's too much, causing me to be sick of them in
no time. Why do you think Jaws worked? Worse is the sympathy for the hunters
who have killed a bunch of bears and are let go at the end as if they're cool dudes.
What Jean-Jacques Annaud lacks is sweeping vision. That's why Carroll Ballard is a brilliant director. Just
check out The Black Stallion and
Never Cry Wolf for what I mean. Oh yeah...no animal violence is ever
necessary. British Columbia? Nah, the whole thing was shot on location in the Dolomites which is a mountain
range between Italy and Austria.
According to IMDb: "A small campaign was launched for the 62nd Academy Awards to get Bart the Bear an Academy
Award nomination for Best Actor, with defenders arguing the bear gave such a moving performance, and hence he
should be the first animal actor to receive a mention in that category. However, the campaign was squashed
by the Academy who said they would not permit nonhuman actors to be nominated."
No, that's not the reason why but rather the Academy didn't want the losers to be embarrassed by an animal.
If that were up to me, I would've been fine with it as long as Youk the Bear got a nomination, too.
All in all, The Bear is bearsploitation at its worst.