That grisly grizzly from ‘The Revenant’ – was she even real?

There are almost as many stories on the mother bear that mauls and nearly kills Leonardo DiCaprio’s character Hugh Glass in The Revenant as there are paeans to the cinematography and the taxing conditions in which the film was made.

The bear is not real. She is not a tamed and trained grizzly that wrestled with a dummy that was later replaced by DiCaprio in post-production. The bear is a result of the fabulous contributions of the visual effects studio Industrial Light & Magic and the efforts of a crew that included director Alejandro G Inarritu, cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki and production designer Jack Fisk. The grizzly was created after watching several bear attack videos, including one involving a drunken man who stumbled into an enclosure in a Berlin zoo. She is, as one report said, “the dramatic essence of great VFX”, and the sequence, along with others, has earned The Revenant a visual effects nomination at the Oscars.

The sequence, which takes place early in The Revenant, has led to a rediscovery of German filmmaker Werner Herzog’s documentary Grizzly Man. Part of Hezog’s ongoing quest to find experiences that push the boundaries of humanity, the 2005 film reconstructs the short life of Timothy Treadwell. A bear enthusiast who lived close to grizzlies in natural parks in a self-declared attempt to protect them from poachers, Treadwell paid the price for his passion. He was mauled and eaten along with his girlfriend in 2003. The film includes excerpts from over 100 hours of footage shot by Treadwell and interviews with his friends as well as wildlife experts who criticise Treadwell’s project to erase the boundaries between humans and animals. Treadwell died “because he acted like a bear”, says one of them, and it is the “ultimate sign of disrespect” since bears get “habituated to humans and lose their fear of them”. Herzog appears to be unconvinced that grizzlies can be regarded as cuddly creatures ambling over for a hug. All they want it food, says the enfant terrible in his trademark German-inflected accent.

The Disney studio has to take the blame for the anthropomorphism of one of the most dangerous creatures in the wild. Baloo the Bear from the animated The Jungle Book (1967) is a giant ball of fluffiness and carefree wit, dancing away with the feral child Mowgli and singing the aptly-named “The Bare Necessities.” Voiced by Phil Harris, the sloth bear remains one of cinema’s best-loved talking animals.

In the new live action version of the novels by Rudyard Kipling that will open in India on April 8, Baloo will be voiced by another byword for caustic humour and insouciance – the redoubtable Bill Murray.

The cuteness factor of bears has featured in several animated films, from Winnie the Pooh to the wildly successful Kung Fu Panda series. One of the most adorable screen bears is in Paddington (2014), the movie based on the popular British children’s books and featuring a computer-generated creature voiced by Ben Wishaw.

Real bears have also been a part of the movies. One of Hollywood’s most famous tame bears was named Bart. The Kodiak bear (January 19, 1977-May 10, 2000) appeared in several films since his debut Windwalker, including White Fang (1991), Legends of the Fall (1994), 12 Monkeys (1995) and The Edge (1997). Bart even made an appearance at the Oscars in 1988 after playing a starring role in French director Jean-Jacques Annaud’s The Bear, about the bond between an orphaned grizzly and an adult bear.

Not all bears are cute. The horror film Grizzly (1976) features a man-eating giant played by Teddy, who towers at 11 feet. In Grizzly Park, an obvious rip-off of the Jurassic Park movies, a bunch of hapless young adults run into a Kodiak bear, played by Brody, a popular replacement for Bart.

Bollywood is never far behind as far as importing and localising Hollywood tropes is concerned. Here is a vintage clip from pulp film specialist Aseem Chandaver, who tweets from the handle @BabaJogeshwari.