I saw this film when it came out in theaters, and was utterly disappointed in it. The storyline is completely unrealistic and the audio dubbing is horrible and detracts from any value the cinematography may have. As a nature and animal lover, I was so looking forward to this film, but the storyline was so unbelievable and trite, and the sound track so bad that I hated the film and walked out after an hour.I was surprised to see someone linking to a clip from this film on Facebook recently, citing it as a "very engaging and emotive short film". It is still utter tripe.

***SPOILER*** Beautifully and breathtakingly photographed in the Italian Alps, subbing for the snow capped mountains of British Columbia, "The Bear" is one of the finest films about man and beast, in this case grizzly bears, to come out in the last 30 or so years. There's this 1,500 grizzly, Bart, who's injured by a pair of trophy hunters who turns violent and after attacking the hunters camp ends up killing and injuring all their pack mules and horses.It's little Youk a baby grizzly bear who's mother was killed in an avalanche who tries to befriend Big Bart who at first drives him away and later, after Youk ends up licking and cleaning his gunshot wound, accepts him as his own. While all this is going on the two hunters are determined to track down Big Bart and kill him before he does any more damage. Big Bart who knows the landscape far better then the two hunters eludes them at every turn but little Youk isn't that successful. Youk get caught by the hunters and left tied in their camp as a pet together with the hunters tracking dogs.***SPOILERS*** It's later when one of the hunters is caught off guard, minus his bear killing rifle, that Big Bart confronts him on a mountain ledge having him scared, in knowing what Big Bart is capable of doing, out of his wits. With the terrified hunter showing fear as well as submission Big Bart in returns show the helpless hunter the kind of mercy that he and his fellows hunter never showed to the big bad bear. What's even more striking in all this is that Big Bart was shot and seriously wounded while eating wild berries, and not attacking them,by the hunters earlier as well as him being tracked down by them to be killed while at first being no threat to them at all! Yet Big Bart showed the trapped hunter the kind of human like mercy that he or any other hunter would have never showed to him under the same circumstances!****MORE SPOILERS*** With the hunter now a changed man he refuses to gun down Big Bart when he with his back turned walks away from him. He also gets his fellow hunter to do the same thing without telling him of the frighting and traumatic as well as heart lifting experience he just had with the big grizzly. With the now changed, in killing wild animals, hunters releasing little Youk back into the wild the cute little bear is soon stalked and confronted by a hungry and ferocious mountain lion who after what seemed like over a mile chase cornered him and was just about to stick his deadly claws and fangs into the helpless baby bear. It's just then that something caught the mountain lions attention and he not only ceased his attacking little Youk but turned tail and ran for his life. It was Youk's adopted daddy Big Bart who despite being separated from little Youk for some time he in fact didn't forget him as he came to his rescue!

People who criticize this movie for lack of realism regarding bear behaviour have missed the point. This is not an "Animal Planet" documentary; it is a movie. One reviewer bitches that an adult male bear would have killed or even eaten a bear cub. Who cares? This guy probably watches "Dumbo" and then scratches his empty head, wondering whether he ever saw an elephant that can fly.I wish more of these knuckleheads would put that much "thought" and scrutinize Michael Moore's fantasy propaganda "documentaries" with the same kind of nit-picking zeal.Watching the film, I was torn between enjoying it and wondering if some animals weren't hurt in the making of it after all - in spite of the obligatory end-credits statement that "no animals were harmed". Of course, if any animals WERE harmed, they'd hardly be able to take the film-makers to court, now would they? And their animal relatives? Animals are far too poor to afford lawyers that can go head-to-head against Hollywood's finest scheissters.Obviously, bears can be trained to do all sorts of things, being the intelligent creatures that they are, but some of the scenes were a little dubious. "Look... We'll just drop the cub into a fast stream, and see if he does something funny. If he dies, we'll get another one. Who'll notice?" Am I being paranoid? I don't trust film-makers, especially European ones (not to mention French ones)..."The Bear" is a solid movie. It has its slow/dull moments, but some highlights, as well. The dream sequences were unusual, an interesting approach to trying to get inside the mind of an animal. The bear cub himself was also quite amusing in a number of sequences.The only major criticism I have is that they gave the cub human "baby-voices", i.e. half of the noises we hear from him come from some French actress sitting in a dubbing studio, goo-gooing her a** off to please the director. It just sounds stupid. I would think that the noises a bear-cub makes would be sufficiently amusing/entertaining on their own without such nonsense having to be thrown in.

This outdoor wildlife drama, stars Jack Wallace and Tcheky Kayro as two nineteenth century trappers. The trappers share the spotlight with two bears that they encounter during one of their Pacific Northwest expeditions. The film examines the relationship between a young cub and a fully matured Grizzly. This is an excellent wildlife film which might be a little frightening at times for younger children, but includes many heartwarming scenes for parents and older children. Viewers who prefer limited dialog should love this film, which presents a substantial portion of the drama from the young Grizzly's prospective. The film which has several touching and humorous moments is highly recommended for family viewing, but keep in mind that it may not be suitable for younger children.