The Bears and I is a 1974 Disney movie loosely based on Robert Franklin Leslie's autobiographical book of the same title, set in British Columbia. The film was shot around Chilko Lake BC, but the setting was changed to the fictional "Whitebird Lake" in the USA.
Vietnam veteran Bob Leslie (played by Patrick Wayne, son of John Wayne) travels to the high country to return the possessions of his fallen comrade to his Native American father Chief Peter A-Tas-Ka-Nay (played by Chief Dan George.) Bob is taken with the power of the landscape and decides to stay a while to find himself. When hunters kill the mother of three young bear cubs he begins to raise them, and we get the cute scenes we expect from a Walt Disney production. However, this puts him at odds with the Chief and the Indigenous population, who believe bears to be sacred. They also have the problem that the federal government wants to relocate them and build National Park facilities on their land, and Bob gets involved in that dispute.
Online reviews for the film are very mixed, but one thing everybody agrees on is the beauty of the scenery around Chilko Lake BC, and how well it was photographed by Ted D. Landon. Surprisingly, this was Landon's only feature film credit, although he shot many television episodes for series such as Gunsmoke, Wonder Woman and Starsky and Hutch.
The film was directed by Bernard McEveety, who had also worked primarily in television, although in 1973 he had directed Disney's One Little Indian with James Garner and a ten-year-old Jodie Foster.
J.R. Bass grabbed these frames from the brief appearance in The Bears and I of a CJ-3B with what looks like a Sears Standard steel hardtop.
The tow bar on the front suggests the filmmakers rented somebody's recreational 3B to turn into a work Jeep. The license plates on the Jeep and the Ford pickup, white on green with the phrase "Drive Safely," do not appear to be authentic. They certainly aren't British Columbia plates, or the orange and black North Carolina plates which actually carried the "Drive Safely" motto.
Bob tries to speak to the authorities on behalf of the Native people, despite his conflict with them. Their frustration leads to threats of violence, and as the tension escalates one man turns his anger towards Bob and attacks his cabin. This causes a forest fire that endangers the park and its inhabitants, human and animal. As he comes to understand the wisdom of his friend's father and the danger the bears face, Bob realizes he must push the bears away. (Wikipedia.)
As I suggested above, online opinions of The Bears and I range from "one of the last great Disney adventure films," to "a God-awful adaption of a really good book, which turns a true story that deals with the magic of nature into a film about three cuddly bear cubs." If you want a reason to find it for your family on the Disney+ channel, maybe the brief shots of the little red 3B in the Canadian wilderness will motivate you. Oh, and there's also the nice song "Sweet Surrender" by John Denver.
Thanks to J.R. Bass for spotting the Jeep.-- Derek Redmond
See Patrick Wayne's dad, John Wayne, in a red CJ-3B in Hellfighters.
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