The Bear: An Amazing Animal Film for All Ages

If you've never seen the amazing animal film The Bear, learn more about it and check out a breathtaking scene of a showdown between a cougar and a bear cub.

As you might have guessed, we have a soft spot for animals here—in fact, there are more dogs than people in our home. So we’re always eager to check out any animal-related movies we can find, from the stunning footage of lions and snow leopards in the Planet Earth documentary series to the stealthy sea creatures in the Shark Week series.

Last week, we stumbled across a new favorite: a 1989 release called The Bear (known as L’Ours in its original French release). The film, which was commended by the Humane Society for its treatment of its trained animal actors, tells the moving story of a young bear cub who loses his mother in a rockslide, and is forced to set off on his own. The cub eventually becomes friends with an older male bear who’d been shot by a hunter, and the pair help one another out of a variety of scrapes and catastrophes, including the cub’s terrifying run-in with a cougar.

Don’t think Bambi—you won’t find any talking animals here, and, while the movie is fine for kids of most ages (though there is a brief “adult” moment between the older bear and a female friend), we wouldn’t call it a children’s film. Through powerful and uplifting scenes featuring the two bears and a pair of hunters, the film deftly illustrates the true meaning of its opening quote: “The greatest thrill is not to kill but to let live.”

Check out this amazing clip from the film, featuring the cub and a hungry cougar (and please remember, no animals were harmed in the making of this movie!), and then watch the whole thing for yourself. The Bear is available on DVD from Amazon.

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