Jack the Bear
Encyclopedia
Jack the Bear is a 1993 American drama film
directed by Marshall Herskovitz
, written by Steven Zaillian
based on the novel by Dan McCall, and starring Danny DeVito
.
), his younger brother Dylan (Miko Hughes
), and father John (Danny DeVito
) start over in Oakland, California
in 1972, following the death of the boys' mother. John, who hosted a children's program back in Syracuse
, now hosts the local late-night show Midnight Shriek, entertaining the audience during horror film
s as "Al Gory."
He is devoted to his two sons, though his drinking problem disrupts the smooth running of the household, as some of his parental duties fall to Jack, who also rebels against his father's off-beat personality.
One of the Learys' neighbors, a young man named Norman Strick (Gary Sinise
) who walks with a cane due to a twisted leg, shows up at their home one Halloween
evening, seeking a donation for a racially-prejudiced candidate. John refuses, and shuts the door in Norman's face. Obviously bothered that Norman lives across the street, John gets drunk, and his performance on his TV show mimics the racially-charged beliefs of his neo-Nazi
neighbor. He is subsequently asked to take time off from his show. The morning after John's performance, Jack finds Norman's dog, Cheyenne, dead on their front lawn. Jack encourages John to talk to Norman about it, and though John apologizes for his actions on television and insists he did not poison Cheyenne, Norman refuses to shake John's hand.
Jack has a young love affair with Karen Morris (Reese Witherspoon
), but after his father's disastrous performance on television, she breaks up with him. Jack's world begins to tear apart, and the pressure of filling in for his father begins to take its toll. He begins to take out his anger on Dylan, is seen taking a drink just like his father, and he begins to curse when angry. Dylan disappears and next-door neighbor Dexter (Justin Mosley Spink) claims Norman kidnapped him. Jack calls the police and he and John are extremely worried until Dylan is found in a nearby forest. While Norman did not physically hurt him, being abandoned in the woods for so long has left Dylan traumitized and appears left unable to speak from it. Norman has vanished, and days later, Dylan still has not spoken. During a visit from his disapproving in-laws, John takes out his frustration by going to the Strick home with a bat. Norman is not there, and after John briefly terrorizes the man's parents (with his father-in-law trying to stop him), John destroys Norman's beloved T-Bird
with the bat. John, fearful of his current state, lets his in-laws take the boys to their Los Angeles
home. Jack decides that he cannot handle the parenting methods of his grandfather (who is always lecturing, and not fun like his father—a realization by Jack that he does love his father), and sneaks back to Oakland. John, meanwhile, decides to try and give up drinking and spends the day trying to get his job back. Jack arrives home, while he's still out, and falls asleep to the TV.
John arrives home and shortly after, Jack is awoken by the electricity going off. We see someone walking with a cane, indicating that Norman has gained entry to the home. Jack knows there is an intruder, and he accidentally knocks John out with a bat. Norman says "Home run, Jack", and chases Jack upstairs and out the bathroom window. Jack jumps for a branch in a nearby tree, and Norman pursues him. John has recovered, and yells from the window, warning the neo-Nazi to stay away from his son. Jack screams for his father. As Norman crawls toward him, Jack watches in horror as the man falls into his neighbor's yard and is attacked and killed by the neighbor's Doberman Pinschers. Soon after, Norman's parents move away and Dylan returns home. John gets his job back, but shows more comical horror films, like Abbott and Costello
.
One afternoon, the neighborhood children all appear and ask if John will play a monster game with them (something he was popular for doing with the kids). However, after his experiences with Norman, he tells the children he won't play monster game anymore. When they ask him why, John sees Dexter (one of the neighborhood children, who use to be part of Jack's group of friends). Dexter, who has a something of a side story in the movie and comes from a broken home with his grandparents, has now strayed from his friends after he had become acquainted with Norman. As John watches Dexter smoking a cigarette, realizing he's going down a dark path. John looks to the children that there are real monsters out there, but he promises to play another better game with them.
In the end scene, Jack is playing his mother's favorite song at the piano and asks his still mute brother what it was. He doesn't appear to remember. Jack, then breaks down crying and tells John that "Nothing is right." "Then we're going to make it all right." John answers, adding "Daddy's here" as he and his son embrace having reached their point. Dylan, then, comes over and answers "Jack the Bear." All three embrace emotionally.
The final scene fades as John watches his sons playing in the front yard.
, Jack the Bear carries a 29% 'fresh' rating.
Drama film
A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...
directed by Marshall Herskovitz
Marshall Herskovitz
Marshall Schreiber Herskovitz is an American film director, writer and producer, and currently the President Emeritus of the Producers Guild of America. Among his productions are Traffic, The Last Samurai, Blood Diamond, and I Am Sam. Herskovitz has directed two feature films, Jack the Bear and...
, written by Steven Zaillian
Steven Zaillian
Steven Ernest Bernard Zaillian is an American screenwriter, film director, film editor, producer, and founder of Film Rites, a film production company. He won an Academy Award for his screenplay for Schindler's List and he has been nominated two times for Awakenings and Gangs of New York...
based on the novel by Dan McCall, and starring Danny DeVito
Danny DeVito
Daniel Michael DeVito, Jr. , better known as Danny DeVito, is an American actor, comedian, director and producer. He first gained prominence for his portrayal of Louie De Palma on the ABC and NBC television series Taxi , for which he won a Golden Globe and an Emmy.DeVito and his wife, Rhea Perlman,...
.
Plot
Jack Leary (Robert J. Steinmiller Jr.Robert J. Steinmiller Jr.
Robert J. Steinmiller, Jr. is an American actor.Steinmiller was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the son of Stephanie, who works for municipal parks, and Robert J. Steinmiller, Sr., who manages a tire store. Steinmiller grew up in Schaumburg, Illinois. He began his acting career in 1989 in the...
), his younger brother Dylan (Miko Hughes
Miko Hughes
Miko John Hughes is an American actor best known for his film roles as a child actor as Gage Creed in Pet Sematary , as an autistic boy opposite Bruce Willis in Mercury Rising and as Dylan, Heather Langenkamp's son in Wes Craven's New Nightmare .-Career:Hughes started his acting career in a...
), and father John (Danny DeVito
Danny DeVito
Daniel Michael DeVito, Jr. , better known as Danny DeVito, is an American actor, comedian, director and producer. He first gained prominence for his portrayal of Louie De Palma on the ABC and NBC television series Taxi , for which he won a Golden Globe and an Emmy.DeVito and his wife, Rhea Perlman,...
) start over in Oakland, California
Oakland, California
Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...
in 1972, following the death of the boys' mother. John, who hosted a children's program back in Syracuse
Syracuse, New York
Syracuse is a city in and the county seat of Onondaga County, New York, United States, the largest U.S. city with the name "Syracuse", and the fifth most populous city in the state. At the 2010 census, the city population was 145,170, and its metropolitan area had a population of 742,603...
, now hosts the local late-night show Midnight Shriek, entertaining the audience during horror film
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
s as "Al Gory."
He is devoted to his two sons, though his drinking problem disrupts the smooth running of the household, as some of his parental duties fall to Jack, who also rebels against his father's off-beat personality.
One of the Learys' neighbors, a young man named Norman Strick (Gary Sinise
Gary Sinise
Gary Alan Sinise is an American actor, film director and musician. During his career, Sinise has won various awards including an Emmy and a Golden Globe Award and was nominated for an Academy Award. In 1992, Sinise directed, and played the role of George Milton in the successful film adaptation of...
) who walks with a cane due to a twisted leg, shows up at their home one Halloween
Halloween
Hallowe'en , also known as Halloween or All Hallows' Eve, is a yearly holiday observed around the world on October 31, the night before All Saints' Day...
evening, seeking a donation for a racially-prejudiced candidate. John refuses, and shuts the door in Norman's face. Obviously bothered that Norman lives across the street, John gets drunk, and his performance on his TV show mimics the racially-charged beliefs of his neo-Nazi
Neo-Nazism
Neo-Nazism consists of post-World War II social or political movements seeking to revive Nazism or some variant thereof.The term neo-Nazism can also refer to the ideology of these movements....
neighbor. He is subsequently asked to take time off from his show. The morning after John's performance, Jack finds Norman's dog, Cheyenne, dead on their front lawn. Jack encourages John to talk to Norman about it, and though John apologizes for his actions on television and insists he did not poison Cheyenne, Norman refuses to shake John's hand.
Jack has a young love affair with Karen Morris (Reese Witherspoon
Reese Witherspoon
Laura Jeanne Reese Witherspoon , better known as Reese Witherspoon, is an American actress and film producer. Witherspoon landed her first feature role as the female lead in the film The Man in the Moon in 1991; later that year she made her television acting debut, in the cable movie Wildflower...
), but after his father's disastrous performance on television, she breaks up with him. Jack's world begins to tear apart, and the pressure of filling in for his father begins to take its toll. He begins to take out his anger on Dylan, is seen taking a drink just like his father, and he begins to curse when angry. Dylan disappears and next-door neighbor Dexter (Justin Mosley Spink) claims Norman kidnapped him. Jack calls the police and he and John are extremely worried until Dylan is found in a nearby forest. While Norman did not physically hurt him, being abandoned in the woods for so long has left Dylan traumitized and appears left unable to speak from it. Norman has vanished, and days later, Dylan still has not spoken. During a visit from his disapproving in-laws, John takes out his frustration by going to the Strick home with a bat. Norman is not there, and after John briefly terrorizes the man's parents (with his father-in-law trying to stop him), John destroys Norman's beloved T-Bird
Ford Thunderbird
The Thunderbird , is an automobile manufactured by the Ford Motor Company in the United States over eleven model generations from 1955 through 2005...
with the bat. John, fearful of his current state, lets his in-laws take the boys to their Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
home. Jack decides that he cannot handle the parenting methods of his grandfather (who is always lecturing, and not fun like his father—a realization by Jack that he does love his father), and sneaks back to Oakland. John, meanwhile, decides to try and give up drinking and spends the day trying to get his job back. Jack arrives home, while he's still out, and falls asleep to the TV.
John arrives home and shortly after, Jack is awoken by the electricity going off. We see someone walking with a cane, indicating that Norman has gained entry to the home. Jack knows there is an intruder, and he accidentally knocks John out with a bat. Norman says "Home run, Jack", and chases Jack upstairs and out the bathroom window. Jack jumps for a branch in a nearby tree, and Norman pursues him. John has recovered, and yells from the window, warning the neo-Nazi to stay away from his son. Jack screams for his father. As Norman crawls toward him, Jack watches in horror as the man falls into his neighbor's yard and is attacked and killed by the neighbor's Doberman Pinschers. Soon after, Norman's parents move away and Dylan returns home. John gets his job back, but shows more comical horror films, like Abbott and Costello
Abbott and Costello
William "Bud" Abbott and Lou Costello performed together as Abbott and Costello, an American comedy duo whose work on stage, radio, film and television made them the most popular comedy team during the 1940s and 1950s...
.
One afternoon, the neighborhood children all appear and ask if John will play a monster game with them (something he was popular for doing with the kids). However, after his experiences with Norman, he tells the children he won't play monster game anymore. When they ask him why, John sees Dexter (one of the neighborhood children, who use to be part of Jack's group of friends). Dexter, who has a something of a side story in the movie and comes from a broken home with his grandparents, has now strayed from his friends after he had become acquainted with Norman. As John watches Dexter smoking a cigarette, realizing he's going down a dark path. John looks to the children that there are real monsters out there, but he promises to play another better game with them.
In the end scene, Jack is playing his mother's favorite song at the piano and asks his still mute brother what it was. He doesn't appear to remember. Jack, then breaks down crying and tells John that "Nothing is right." "Then we're going to make it all right." John answers, adding "Daddy's here" as he and his son embrace having reached their point. Dylan, then, comes over and answers "Jack the Bear." All three embrace emotionally.
The final scene fades as John watches his sons playing in the front yard.
Cast
- Danny DeVitoDanny DeVitoDaniel Michael DeVito, Jr. , better known as Danny DeVito, is an American actor, comedian, director and producer. He first gained prominence for his portrayal of Louie De Palma on the ABC and NBC television series Taxi , for which he won a Golden Globe and an Emmy.DeVito and his wife, Rhea Perlman,...
as John Leary - Robert J. Steinmiller Jr.Robert J. Steinmiller Jr.Robert J. Steinmiller, Jr. is an American actor.Steinmiller was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the son of Stephanie, who works for municipal parks, and Robert J. Steinmiller, Sr., who manages a tire store. Steinmiller grew up in Schaumburg, Illinois. He began his acting career in 1989 in the...
as Jack Leary - Miko HughesMiko HughesMiko John Hughes is an American actor best known for his film roles as a child actor as Gage Creed in Pet Sematary , as an autistic boy opposite Bruce Willis in Mercury Rising and as Dylan, Heather Langenkamp's son in Wes Craven's New Nightmare .-Career:Hughes started his acting career in a...
as Dylan Leary - Gary SiniseGary SiniseGary Alan Sinise is an American actor, film director and musician. During his career, Sinise has won various awards including an Emmy and a Golden Globe Award and was nominated for an Academy Award. In 1992, Sinise directed, and played the role of George Milton in the successful film adaptation of...
as Norman Strick - Art LaFleurArt LaFleur-Life and career:La Fleur was born in Gary, Indiana. He played football in 1962 as a redshirt at the University of Kentucky under Coach Charlie Bradshaw as chronicled in a 2007 book, The Thin Thirty....
as Mr. Festinger - Carl Gabriel YorkeCarl Gabriel YorkeCarl Gabriel Yorke is an American actor.He was one of four actors who the Italian police believed had been murdered in the making of the 1980 horror film Cannibal Holocaust. So realistic was the film that shortly after it was released its director Ruggero Deodato was arrested for murder...
as Gordon Layton - Stefan GieraschStefan GieraschStefan Gierasch is an American television and film actor.Stefan Gierasch has made over 100 screen appearances, mostly in American television, beginning in 1951. In the mid-60s, he performed with the Trinity Square Players in Providence, Rhode Island...
as Father-in-Law - Andrea MarcovicciAndrea MarcovicciAndrea Louisa Marcovicci is an American actress and singer.- Biography :Marcovicci was born in Manhattan, New York City, the daughter of Helen , a singer, and Eugen Marcovicci, a physician and internist of Romanian descent. In her teens, she decided that she wanted to be a singer, but instead...
as Elizabeth Leary - Julia Louis-DreyfusJulia Louis-DreyfusJulia Scarlett Elizabeth Louis-Dreyfus is an American actress and comedienne, widely known for her sitcom roles in Seinfeld and The New Adventures of Old Christine....
as Peggy Etinger - Reese WitherspoonReese WitherspoonLaura Jeanne Reese Witherspoon , better known as Reese Witherspoon, is an American actress and film producer. Witherspoon landed her first feature role as the female lead in the film The Man in the Moon in 1991; later that year she made her television acting debut, in the cable movie Wildflower...
as Karen Morris - Lee GarlingtonLee GarlingtonAnn Leslie "Lee" Garlington is an American actress.Garlington was born in Teaneck, New Jersey. She has guest starred in a number of notable television series, including The West Wing, 7th Heaven, 8 Simple Rules, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Judging Amy, L.A...
as Mrs. Festinger - Justin Mosley Spink as Dexter
Reception
Out of 17 reviews on Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
, Jack the Bear carries a 29% 'fresh' rating.
Awards and nominations
1994 Young Artist Awards- Won – Best Performance in a Feature Film - Supporting Actress: Reese WitherspoonReese WitherspoonLaura Jeanne Reese Witherspoon , better known as Reese Witherspoon, is an American actress and film producer. Witherspoon landed her first feature role as the female lead in the film The Man in the Moon in 1991; later that year she made her television acting debut, in the cable movie Wildflower...
- Nominated – Best Performance in a Feature Film - Leading Actor: Robert J. Steinmiller Jr.Robert J. Steinmiller Jr.Robert J. Steinmiller, Jr. is an American actor.Steinmiller was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the son of Stephanie, who works for municipal parks, and Robert J. Steinmiller, Sr., who manages a tire store. Steinmiller grew up in Schaumburg, Illinois. He began his acting career in 1989 in the...
- Nominated – Best Performance in a Feature Film - Young Actor 10 or Younger: Miko HughesMiko HughesMiko John Hughes is an American actor best known for his film roles as a child actor as Gage Creed in Pet Sematary , as an autistic boy opposite Bruce Willis in Mercury Rising and as Dylan, Heather Langenkamp's son in Wes Craven's New Nightmare .-Career:Hughes started his acting career in a...