O Urso e Eu

"The Bears and I" is a Disney film starring Patrick Wayne, John Wayne's handsome son who appeared in a variety of films over the years, such as "SInbad and the Eye of the Tiger" and quite a few of his father's later films.

Like some other viewers, I must admit some trepidation when I watched this film on Disney+. After all, the 1970s saw a LOT of terrible live-action Disney films. Fortunately, it turned out really well and was a nice surprise.

The story begins with Bob (Wayne) arriving out in the wilderness where some natives live. It seems Bob was friends with the Chief's son..and they bonded while on tour in Vietnam during the war. Sadly, the Chief's son died...and Bob was bringing some of the guys' momentos to the father. So far, so good...Bob and the local tribe hit it off just fine. However, through the course of the story, again and again, misundersandings break out between Bob and the natives. First, when one of the annoyingly hot-headed Indians kills a female bear, Bob decides to adopt the trio of young bears instead of letting them die...yet the tribe think this is wrong. Second, when goverment agents arrive because they want to put a national park on this land, the tribe assumes Bob is in league with them when he actually isn't. What's to become of both these prblems and poor old Bob?

I liked the film for many reasons. It reminds me a lot of Marty Stouffer's nature video about him raising an orphaned grizzly cub. I also liked how the white folks and natives BOTH were not 100% good nor bad...and you could understand where all the distrust arises. Overall, a very enjoyable a dn compelling movie. My only complaint, and it's a minor one, but why did they cast Michael Ansara as one of the triebsmen...as he actually originally hailed from the MIddle East?! Fortunately, the rest of them were natives...so it's not all bad.

The live-action movies from Walt Disney Pictures in the 70s (and for different reasons those of the 80s) are some of my favourites of the studio, when it's searching for a way, after Disney's death, to continue with their style and at the same time adapt to the modern cinema that is exploding everywhere. This film is a good example of a story that feels like one of their classic "True-Life Adventures", but mixed with more contemporary problems of colonialism and human-wildlife conflicts. Unfortunately, the best way (quality wise) to watch the movie today is on Disney +, but the version there is quite censored.

Patrick Wayne heads out to an Indian settlement to speak to Chief Dan George; Wayne had been a buddy of the Chief's son, killed in Vietnam. Wayne wants time to think about his life, so he holes up in a cabin. There he succors three orphaned bear cubs and gets in the middle of a squabble between the US Parks Department and the Indians. The Parks Department wants the land for a national park, and the Indians look on it as their home.

It's a good movie in terms of story and camerawork. The area around Chiko Lake in British Columbia, standing in for US wilderness, is beautiful, and the performers -- including the three bears -- are good-looking and move well. Where the film falls down is in the dialogue direction. Wayne drones, and the voice-over he performs, written by Jack Speirs, is annoyingly cute. The story movies which voice-over narration improves are very rare. Usually they are a kludge to fix a problem that should not exist. In this one, with its year-long story, the narration helps tighten the movie. Even so, there's too much of it and poorly performed.

The idea of watching everything on Disney Plus has exposed me to a fair bit of rubbish. In particular, a lot of pretty terrible live action films that were churned out in the 1970's. It was with some trepidation then that I approached "The Bears and I" which it appeared might manage to be the magic double header of both animal abuse and stereotypical portrayals, but in actuality was entertaining enough to keep my attention.

Bob Leslie (Patrick Wayne) returns the possessions of his late army buddy to his Native American father Chief Peter A-Tas-Ka-Nay (Chief Dan George). Leslie decides to stay in the area for a while and starts to work on a cabin near a lake. When hunters kill the mother of three young bear cubs, he decides that he can't just leave them to fend for themselves, so begins to feed and care for them. This action puts him at odds with the tribe, who believe bears to be sacred and better dead than subservient to man. The tribe also has the problem that the Parks department want to convert the land to a national park, and they think that Leslie could be a good go-between.

This is one of the films where the producers (I assume) chose to use trained bears, rather than attempting to cobble a story around naturally shot footage. So, Patrick Wayne (son of John) gets to interact with the bears on a closeup basis. That interaction really makes up the bookends of the film - with the fight for the Native American land - sitting in the middle. There's the odd moment when I wasn't 100% on the cubs safety. Particularly in a scene involving an upturned canoe. I quite liked Wayne here, he narrates the story as well as playing the lead and he makes Leslie just the right side of likeable rather than naive idiot. (Though occasionally it's pretty close)

The middle of the film focuses on the land issue which has a few moments that don't ring true. The demolition of the houses before the relocation has been completed, for one and the fact that things don't escalate wildly when the films villain, played by Michael Ansara starts taking potshots at the building crew.

Look, I don't think this is some lost gem (with do apologies to my reviewing colleagues that did) but it's generally watchable and has some lovely landscapes to look at. Plenty of films on Disney Plus don't manage that.

Much like the films of the 1960s, The Bears and I has that same nostalgia feeling. Later films wouldn't feel the same. The narration adds to the value in my opinion. Very similar to Charlie the Lonesome Cougar in a few ways. Patrick Wayne was great as Bob Leslie, the man who fosters the bears.

I suppose you have to be a fan of the Disney narrative to truly enjoy this picture. Only a true loyal fan can see that this isn't a bad movie. It's what we've come to expect from Disney of the time period, family oriented stories with a touch of class and heart.