Bears and I, The 1974

Bears and I, The 1974

Bears and I (1974) AFI Description

‘The Bears and Me’ follows in the paw prints of such Disney films as ‘King of the Grizzlies”.  They both are based on true stories, came out in the 70’s, have Indians (or Native American’s) as major characters and or course feature bears.

KOTG featured an Indian protagonist named Moki.

TBAI features a Vietnam-vet protagonist named Bob Leslie. During the war his buddy and fellow soldier named Larch was killed in action. He travels to through the Whitebird Wilderness reserve on a quest to find Larch’s father Chief Peter A-Tas-Ka-Nay. He begins a relationship with him and another Indian named Oliver who runs the general store.

Moki feels a close spiritual connection to the bear, whose mother is killed.

Bob adopts the 3 black bears after their mother is killed. He wants to raise them to adulthood before releasing them back on their own. This upsets Chief Peter A-Tas-Ka-Nay, who thinks raising the 3 bears is akin to slavery and that this act angers the Great Spirit thus bringing bad fortune to the tribe. Besides trying to raise 3 bears Bob acts as

In KOTG Wahb is the name of the bear.

In the ‘Bears and I’ the names of the bears are Patch, Scratch, and Rusty. Bob has an especially close relationship with Patch.

The Cornell in KOTG shoots bears and wants to keep shooting bears.

Sam Eagle Speaker shoots bears and lights things on fire.

Wahb gets into a fight with another Grizzly for control of the forest.

Bob gets into a fight with the bad boy Indian named Sam Eagle Speaker after he tries shooting the bears and on a few other occasions.

Moki works alongside other men on the Colonels ranch.

All bears slide down snow in the mountains.

Wahb likes to knock things over.

The 3 cubs like to climb tries.

The Cornell is trying to run a cattle ranch.

Bob is trying to negotiate between the government men and the Indian tribe as the government wants to turn the reservation into a national park. This causes much friction and a secondary plot point to focus on when not focusing in on the bears.  The solution to the problem is somewhat predictable but works in the context of the story and of course the story is based on a true story, so there you go.

The Ranch hands attempt to help the Cornell run the ranch and one of them plays dead to avoid being mauled by Wahb after he sneaks up on him while he was sleeping.

After a fire breaks out, the workers hired to come and tear down the houses on the reservation work side by side with the Indians they are trying to relocate to another location. It’s a great scene of mutual peace between opposing parties.

Overall KOTG is a Ok Film. Entertaining and somewhat forgettable.

TBAI is a very good Disney film which is something to come back and watch and reaffirms good values and the treatment of animals and people. At one scene when one of the bears is injured and near death and the chief is refusing to help Bob and the bears, Bob reaffirms “Life is the most precious thing we have”.  If only all people would apply that principle from the moment of conception to natural death, we would have a happier world.