Auf der Spur des großen Bären

This is the sort of 'great outdoors' movies that you can watch once, enjoy, and then promptly forget about. The movie provides a good sweep of Colorado, and the story - about a family trying to catch up with the gold rush - passable. However, when all the humans on stage are out acted by Bart the Bear, you know you are watching a straight-to-video movie. John Denver, the only recognisable actor, stares into space for long periods of times (probably writing a song for his next album), and all the others are Legends of the Fall rip-offs. However, the most amusing sequence in when Denver erects and furnishes a cabin in about an hour. Don't let me put you off, this is lightweight entertainment and good fun when there are nothing but repeats on the T.V.

Best Bit: Bart the Bear's dramatic drooling.

I agree with the former reviewer about the cabin. I mean, they are trapped in the wilderness because this guy, who can build a log cabin in one day, CAN'T FIX A WAGON AXLE BEFORE WINTER! Sheesh, believable. I'm sure wagon axles were a lot tougher to make than houses.

You also may not want to show it to impressionable young Indian kids, since some characters use derogatory language and racial slurs, and the one Indian character is something of a stereotype.

The movie won't make you laugh or cry, but it won't kill you with boredom either, and if you have the hour and a half to kill, there are worse things to watch out there. Bart the Bear is always good, and there are a few charming moments.

Entertainment Tonight previewed this wonderful little film as being the last thing John Denver made. It makes me sad to think this wonderful entertainer is gone from this world and will never make anything else for us to enjoy. I wish his role could have been larger and broader. He was a great actor in addition to being a great singer. We miss you in this world, J. D.

This movie was shown on the Discovery-Animal Planet network.

The bear, if there ever really was a bear, is the second supporting character. A delight and disconcerting at the same time. There is a native-american belief that animals could take on human bodies and vise-versa. This idea was only briefly exposed in a few spots.

The opening scenes are of a modern teenager who has problems. What teen doesn't, especially about parents? He learns he is to inherit his great-grandfathers journal and other personal affects. The journal was written late in life and starts with problems encountered while moving west in the fall of 1850. Time shifts to and from 1850 carry the story back and forth as the youngster reads about his ancestor, his problems, ideas, hopes and fears. They are similar to his.

Historical discrepancy aside this movie would appeal to

teens and adults. As with all material one should inspect and verify fact and falsehood. The lad was allowed to travel with a "real live mount'n man" to trade for supplies. The last rendezvous took place in the spring of 1840, ten years before this family arrived in the Rockies.

Background views are great. The highest points of violence were a skillet defense by an expectant mother against a scalp'n knife wielding attacker and a couple of daring fisticuff events. Alfred

Hitchcock would be proud of the drama left to the viewer.

This was said to be John Denver's last film. As I watched it, I couldn't help but feel sadness over that aspect. I thought this was a wonderful family film with John Denver playing a role I had longed wanted to see him in. A pioneer. A man blazing a wild mountain trail in a covered wagon. Being in the Rockies, with native Americans, bears, eagles, wolves, and mountain men. The story was very well told. The actors all played their roles to perfection. I love these kind of stories. Whenever they are made on modern film, we are able to re-live the past with these stories. I remember seeing James Reed in the mini-series North and South. I liked him as the Union soldier. He was great in this as well. The boys who played John Denver's sons looked familiar, but I couldn't place them in other projects. Entertainment Tonight highlighted the story about this final film. I wouldn't have known about it otherwise. When it was shown on cable, my sister taped it for me to see. All in all, this film will be forever treasured by true-blue John Denver fans. And we all wish, more than anything, that he was still around to give us more of the same. Ten plus in my book.