Movie Review: Dancing the Bear (2007)

As a writer who mainly covers running, it isn’t every day that I get to review a movie. I have often been a fan of reading movie reviews, especially the really bad ones. I get a good chuckle when a film reviewer compares the latest big budget Hollywood picture to a say a “naked man urinating in traffic.” (That was from a real movie review!)

But as I sat down to write a review of the new documentary Dancing the Bear, I was struck with how hard it is to give a fair opinion, yet potentially criticize someone else’s hard work. This is made especially hard in this case, because I sense that this film was almost a hand-crafted work that one person has invested a lot of himself into.

I struggled with this enough that I completely re-wrote this review after people read it and told me that I was walking too thin a line on what it was that I was really saying about the film. My readers trust my opinions and they expect me to say what’s on my mind.

So here it is, the re-write of the review. I hope that the film’s authors know that I considered this subject carefully before publishing this review and I hope that they take it for what it is: one person’s opinion.

Not that many movies are made about running, but every once in awhile a movie comes out that tackles something to do with our sport. There have been some wonderful movies over the years and with the resurgence of interest in documentaries there have even been a couple of films that have tackled ultra-running as a subject.

Dancing the Bear is a new documentary about “The Bear” 100 mile ultra-endurance race in Idaho. The movie chronicles several participants as they get set to tackle the run and then we follow their progress throughout the day and night from the race’s start to its finish.

The film follows a very traditional format that nearly all documentaries about running have adopted: introduce the participants, interview the race director, then follow the run along in chronological order.

In order for a film like this to be effective, you need to care about the runners. You need to be hooked by the film in such a way that you’re invested in their success or failure. The problem with Dancing the Bear is that the filmmaker simply introduces us to the participants, without grabbing us in a way that makes us want to follow these particular runners through their journey.

The film is a bit like flipping through a photo-album – of someone else’s photos. For anyone that may have ever run The Bear or knows any of these people, I’m sure this would be a wonderful and fun experience. But for the casual outsider, it’s as if you’re watching a race video of race you haven’t run and a movie about people that you don’t know.

This is a short film at 54 minutes in length and I found myself even in that small amount of time waiting for the film to take me somewhere that I haven’t been before. There is beautiful scenery to backdrop the film that would be the film’s saving grace. But the film dwells primarily on interviews taken at the aid stations. I would have liked to spend more time watching the athletes quietly suffer out on the trails than watching them eat.

If you’re interested in seeing a part of the world that you haven’t seen before or you simply must see every film made about running, then you will find something good in this film. But since the film is only available for purchase, I can’t say that I would recommend the film to a wider audience.

Dancing with the Bear actually had a great premise behind it. Both the film’s packaging and the introduction tell us that running was a part of the indigenous cultures of the past and that ultra-running is a way that we continue to make running a part of our culture. This would have been a wonderful angle for the filmmakers to pursue. Unfortunately, after the introduction, the film never comes back to this potentially engaging subject.

If you watch the film, you’ll get a glimpse into the world of this particular race, but you should not expect a deep conversation about or an education in ultra-running.

For those of you that haven’t seen it, the documentary Running on the Sun (2000) is an excellent portrayal of an ultra distance running event. Aside from the somewhat cheesy music, it’s a fantastic glimpse at the struggles of the Badwater 135 mile race in Death Valley.

Both Running on the Sun and Dancing the Bear are available for purchase at Amazon.com.

Coach Joe

Running Wild with Coach Joe – a blog focused on marathon, triathlon and ultra-endurance racing, training and motivation. Bookmark us at http://coachjoeenglish.wordpress.com or use your favorite RSS feed reader to get the latest news and articles. Running Wild is also now available on Facebook and My Space.