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Retro Review: Grizzly
By HammerFanatic
Apr 29, 2006, 15:43

In 1975, Jaws hit the big screen and following the monumental success of that film, a ton of 'Nature vs Man' films followed and in 1976, Grizzly was one of nature takes on man films. Director William Girdler assembled a good cast for this film that included; Christopher George (Ranger Mike Kelly), Andrew Prine (Don Stober), Richard Jaeckel (Arthur 'Scotty' Scott), Joe Dorsey (Charley Kittridge), Joan McCall (Allison Corwin) and Charles Kissenger (Dr. Samuel Hallitt).

Mike Kelly (Christopher George) is a forest ranger in an area that houses a nature lodge when suddenly dead campers begin piling up. It seems the victims have had the extreme misfortune of meeting up with a grizzly bear. It would also seem this grizzly is a might bit larger than most and is estimated to be about 15-feet tall and weighing about 2000 pounds. Kelly enlists the aid of chopper pilot, Don Stober (Andrew Prine) and naturalist 'Scotty' (Richard Jaeckel) to help track this beast down and kill it, before anyone else becomes a snack for the beast. Naturally, Kelly encounters some resistance from park supervisor, Charley Kittridge (Joe Dorsey), who wants to keep this entire issue quiet at first and then brings on the press to allow them to see just how well things are being handled...always a bad idea. More bodies are added to the mix and soon Kelly takes command and sets out with Stober and Scotty to take on this behemoth in it's own setting.

Grizzly is offered on this disc in the dreaded Pan & Scan (1.33:1) and overall the picture quality is acceptable at best. Plenty of grain is apparent with this release and nighttime scenes are quite dark. Audio options are English (Dolby Digital 2.0) only with no subtitles being offered. Please note, the disc reviewed here is from a 1998 release from Digital Versatile Disc and is bare bones as far as any bonus features go. I couldn't even access scene selections for this disc, when choosing menu play, the film simply begins. Shriek Show has recently re-released this film on DVD in a widescreen transfer with a bit more in the bonus features area as well.

I get a kick out of 'nature vs man' films, I always have and I find, Grizzly to be an enjoyable entry in the sub-genre. The cast is up for the task at hand and the scenery is a definite plus. Some of the killings are rather intense and the blood flows quite freely at times, so I'm a little surprised at what this film was able to get away with, given it's a PG rated film.  Another interesting point to me is, in the film, the bear is described as being 15-feet or there about, but the tag-line and DVD case both state, '18 feet'! This film seemed to hit late-night TV quite a bit back in the day and knowing that there is a DVD available now that offers the film in the widescreen format, I'd be most interested in picking the disc up. I'd not be so quick to recommend this particular release, even though the film itself is a fun one....if you're going to pick the film up, go for the widescreen version and leave this particular release on the shelf!

Buy Grizzly on DVD at Amazon.com