Bear Island (1980)

You won't be disappointed!

Please don't spend money on this.

Lack of good storyline.

Fresh and Exciting

Released in 1979 and directed by Hammer-alumni Don Sharp from Alistair MacLean's novel, "Bear Island" is an arctic thriller about an international group meeting at the eponymous isle near the Arctic Circle off the Northern coast of Norway. Several people die under dubious circumstances and it becomes clear that some of the personnel are doing the killing; and why. Donald Sutherland, Lloyd Bridges and Vanessa Redgrave play the main protagonists while Richard Widmark plays the curmudgeonly leader of the expedition. Christopher Lee is also on hand as an interesting loner.Unlike similar arctic thrillers, like 1968's "Ice Station Zebra," which was absurdly set-bound, "Bear Island" features great location shooting with Alaska substituting for Norway. There's a lot of action, including an avalanche, several explosions, a great knock-down-drag-out fist fight and a falling radio tower; there's also some good tension between the characters. But something keeps "Bear Island" from standing out. The script needed SOMETHING to make it more compelling, like a head-turning female or a steamy romance. Yes, Barbara Parkins is on hand, but her role is too small; and Redgrave's part is thoroughly academic. Nevertheless, there's enough good here to give it a marginal recommendation for those who appreciate realistic (to a point) arctic adventures, like 2009's "Whiteout." Sutherland, for instance, is excellent as the main protagonist.The film runs 118 minutes and was shot in Glacier Bay National Park, Alaska, and British Columbia, as well as studio work in England.GRADE: B-

I don't know this movie. I was looking it up because I enjoyed the book. I'm writing, because I do think that OCT, who gave a VERY negative review of the movie, damaged his/her credibility when he/she said that Alistair MacLean was out-of-print. Hey Oct, go to Amazon.com, do a search, type in the word "Alistair" and see if Alistair MacLean isn't the first option that pops up. Do you just pull "stuff" out of thin air or do you think a little and maybe do a little research first? I was incredulous of your lampooning of each and every member of the cast. These are solid actors... so I was questioning your motives. Then I flashed back to that NONSENSE about Alistair MacLean being out-of-print and realized that YOU should out-of-print.

Bear Island starts as various scientists of differing nationalities head towards the icy NATO owned Bear Island, a small island in the Artic, where they intend to study the effects of climate change on the melting glaciers. Among them is interested American Frank Lnsing (Donald Sutherland) whose father Captained a German World War II U-Boat & since Bear Island was the last recorded position of his father's boat he wants to see if he can find it, however all is not well as various other parties in the expedition have more sinister motives. Why did team leader Otto Gerran (Richard Widmark) designate certain areas as avalanche risks when they were not? What is he trying to keep people away from? Who sabotaged the radio mast? Who deliberately started an avalanche that killed one scientist & almost killed Lansing? Just what watery cold secrets does Bear Island hide & why does it appear certain people will kill for them & just who is the mysterious Zelda?This British Canadian co-production was co-written & directed by Don Sharp & was based on the novel of the same name published in 1971 by Alistair MacLean although I have not read it so cannot compare the two but this film adaption differs greatly from it's source novel in many ways, as a film I quite liked Bear island & thought it was a fairly watchable espionage thriller with hints of James Bond style action all set on an isolated cold Artic island cut off from civilisation which adds tremendous atmosphere to the film. The set-up is quite good & there's definite intrigue here but it shoots it's load a little too early on although the actual identity of Zelda is kept secret until the end the reasons behind everything is a little predictable. The action adventure scenes are good if a little understated with a lengthy snow mobile/hover-boat chase at the end & two skiers trying to out run a huge avalanche the two main action set-piece highlights. At almost two hours long some may lose patience with it but I thought the time flew by which is always a good sign & I was fairly gripped by it even if things turn out a little underwhelming at the end. The character's are alright although I would have liked more motive for some of the lesser ones to have been the villain & a few more red herrings, basically I would have liked some slightly stronger mystery elements but I still liked it overall.Bear Island seems to be fairly obscure with few user comments & no external reviews on IMDb, it has certainly never been released on DVD anywhere & only issued once on VHS here in the UK during the mid 80's although it does occasionally turn up on telly every so often. The film is well made & has a really icy isolated atmosphere, I almost felt the Artic chill while watching this at home although the version I saw was horribly pan and scanned & you could hardly tell what was going on in certain zoomed in grainy as hell shots that surely would have looked so much better in it's proper aspect ratio. The action scenes & fights are nice enough & there's a few decent explosions as well.Filmed on location in Alaska, Canada & in the studio in London, England this looks good with good production values although it apparently bombed big time at the box-office which is probably why it's not more well known or more widely released. There's a good solid cast of pros here including Donald Sutherland, Vanessa Redgrave, Richard Widmark, Christopher Lee, Lloyd Bridges & Lawrence Dane although some of the accents are a bit poor.Bear Island doesn't have much in common with it's source novel but as an action adventure with a sprinkling of mystery you could do worse & I did like it, worth a watch at lest if you can find a copy or catch it on telly.

I like this movie, great cast, Sutherland, Redgrave, Bridges, all in one movie? You couldn't ask for more. The pace is a bit slow though. But it is common, since this is a suspense, not action flick movie. the plot is fine, although is a bit confusing at the start. The best thing is that you keep guessing who's the bad guy. You'll never know until the end of this movie. Unfortunetely, my VHS version is kind of fading away. The picture is getting blurry. I assume it's because it's been almost 10 years. I'm actually looking for DVD version, but it's also very rare. Probably the movie is not a big hit, so they don't have it in DVD version. Anybody can tell me any site which I could download this movie?Thanks!