# Grizzly (1976)

### reviewed by
Douglas P Mosurak

    "GRIZZLY" (1976)

    a film by William Girdler

    starring a big bear,
    Christopher George,
    Andrew Prine,
    and Richard Jaeckel

written by Harvey Flaxman and David Sheldon a Edward L. Montoro production released by Film Ventures International

MPAA ratinbg: PG for violence, gore, brief nudity, and mild profanity.

    recommendation: sketchy

"If man continues to encroach upon this untouched natural environment, he will soon displace those creatures who were meant to live here." Thus begins the opening tirade of "Grizzly", released at the height of the mid-Seventies "man vs. nature" exploitation film craze. Make no mistake - this film is bad, probably as bad as most of the films following "Jaws" (1975) that bit so firmly on the genre. However, "Grizzly" is bad in a very odd, almost endearing way that made me feel kind of sorry for it. It's almost as if the film were made on two entirely different shoots.

The story copies "Jaws" almost verbatim, but with a twist. Instead of the ocean, we're in a national park, and instead of a shark, the tourists and campers are plagued by one fifteen foot, two-thousand-pound grizzly bear. How did it escape the tagging and cataloguing efforts of "National Park"'s rangers? "I don't know", says Scott (Richard Jaeckel), an eccentric naturalist hunter who wears a fur pelt. "It just did".

That's just one of the many plot deficiencies endemic within the film. Despite the warnings of rangers Kelly (Christopher George) and Don (Andrew Prine), the park superintendent Tom (Tom Arcuragi) refuses to heed the reports of campers mauled, eaten, and buried by this bear. And while the carnage continues, Tom opens the park to inexperienced, drunken hunters to stalk the bear without a barrage of media attention. Yeah, right. And when the cameras do arrive, Tom turns the situation into a veritable media circus. It's all a big part of his plan to pursue what Kelly refers to as a "big warm, brown plastic office in Washington". Tom finds Kelly a "maverick". That's the internal tension in the film. Seriously. That, and the bear, which has no "bear"-ing on any of the human drama that finds its way into the script.

By the way, we don't get to see the bear until the halfway point - those initial victims are merely attacked by a large furry paw, capable of shearing limbs. Of course, nobody in management listens to reason about how the bear behaves. Of course, the people who get naked get killed first. Of course, the false scare of the little boy who goes outside the front yard to round up his pet bunny is immediately followed with a scene of him getting his legs torn off. Of course, characters disappear, then come back after the action is gone. This is for the drive-in, and late-night cable TV, not for Sundance. Most of the men with speaking parts have gruff, affected voices that border on laughable. Tact is definitely not its strong suit.

What this film does have going for it is some pretty tight editing and wonderful aerial cinematography of the Georgia mountains. Director Girdler, who died in a helicopter crash after leaving us, unaccountable, with the similar "Day of the Animals" (1978), and the blaxploitation exorcism knockoff "Abby" (1974), scouted these locations well, and the look of the film is certainly not unprofessional. And it's got the bear, who also manages to knock the head off of a horse. But roughly one-quarter of the film is padded out with annoying "bear-cam" shots (you know, the first person perspective, with the rustling of leaves and branches underscoring a low, growling sound that even the hearing-impaired could sense).

I like bears. I find them to be the clowns of nature, and the star of "Grizzly" is no exception. I wish he (and it is a he, since it also eats a bear cub, something which a female bear would never do) would kill the entire cast and not stop until they were all chewed on at least a little bit.

As a whole, "Grizzly" works as mindless, fun, and entertaining, but it's crap nonetheless. It's definitely not gripping in any way, shape, or form, and I would only recommend it to those who want to see people dumber than they are get torn to shreds by a really big bear.

    (C) 1998 by Doug Mosurak.

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