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I had heard that Bear Island was not a good movie at all, but I wanted to see it anyway because I like the cast a lot. When I eventually saw it, I didn't find it great, but it was much better than I expected.

Pros: Lovely photography and great sets and locations. Atmospheric score by Richard Farnon. Great performances from Richard Widmark and Christopher Lee, Vanessa Redgrave has her moments but has an inconsistent accent. Sharp and well paced direction.

Cons: As much as I love Donald Sutherland, he does look bored and stiff here. The dialogue is uneven, having moments when it is decent but some of it is really quite bad. The story has great idea and starts and ends well, but the film is rather sluggish with some of the middle section feeling like filler.

All in all, not great, not awful, just somewhere in between. 6/10 Bethany Cox

German scientist Otto Gerran (Richard Widmark) leads an expedition to icy Bear Island - which was also a base for Nazi U-boats in WWII - for some kind of environmental research. Included in the group are fellow scientist Frank Lansing (Donald Sutherland), nurse Heddi Lindquist (Vanessa Redgrave), Russian Lechinski (Christopher Lee) and boat captain Smithy (Lloyd Bridges) among others. When they arrive at the titular location, the group discovers one of the three folks stationed there has gone missing. Before you can say TEN LITTLE INDIANS, folks start getting offed in an effort to hide the island's secret.

This is a pretty enjoyable action-mystery adaptation of Alistair MacLean's snowbound novel. The cast is all game, which is good as this must have been a hell of a production to shoot as 70% of it looks shot on location (Alaska and Canada). Director Don Sharp keeps things moving fast and, while you'll probably solve most of the mystery early on, there are still some nice twists. The production is nicely mounted, with great sets and some nice Bond-esquire snow chases. One great scene has Sutherland discovering a German U-boat and he finds the dead crew aboard it, shackled to their posts.

One interesting thing my friend who sent this to me pointed out is that this totally has a vibe of John Carpenter's THE THING. Now, of course, THE THING is a remake but I'd wager that film's screenwriter Bill Lancaster or John Carpenter saw this before setting about their version. The opening - where a lone guy runs across a snow-covered plain while being chased by a snowboat - sounds exactly like the opening of Carpenter's film. Look for Bruce Greenwood in his first big screen roll as Tommy the Technician, sporting an epic beard.

I read the book and saw the movie. I enjoyed both. Donald Sutherland was excellent. This is a suspense thriller and so it goes slower than a typical action flick. If you expect this to be an action flick you will be disappointed. There are a few surprises which is typical of the writer's style.

If you want an action movie MacLean is not for you as he is the Master of Suspense and writes in a way to keep you on the edge of your seat wondering what is going on. If you see this from the middle, you will be bored, you must see it from the start and watch with full attention. If you miss any of the plot, you will get confused frustrated and wonder why you're watching the movie.

When you watch this, don't do anything else except watch it and I assure you that you will applaud this movie along with others like unto it like Where Eagles Dare, Guns of Navarone, Force 10 from Navarone, Ice Station Zebra, Detonator I and Detonator II, Satan Bug and a few more. The only one that dragged for me was Puppet on a Chain but I saw it chopped up on network TV so I need to see it again unchopped, unedited and not edited for television.

The similar theme music, Arctic setting, Norwegians and group alone left wondering who the antagonist is. This is a neat little film I found cross referencing Donald Sutherland films I haven't seen before. The Nazi U boat subplot is also great for its atmosphere. Another bonus is that it offers a pretty good line up of old school actors such as Richard Widmark, Loyd Bridges and Christopher Lee. There aren't many great films about the Arctic but this is one that you will enjoy.

Film with good scenes from Alaska and good actors. He holds attention until the end of the film

A team of weather scientific - Vanessa Redgrave , Richard Widmark, Barbara Parkins , Lloyd Bridges, Christopher Lee - who are actually secret agents intelligently posing as UN researchers gather together at a remote Arctic outpost and discover a criminal intrigue about a Nazi treasure .Shortly after they arrive begin dying in assumed accidents . They are wind up at the same base and realize that are being murdered one by one at the isolated location under mysterious circumstances . As continuous explosion , traps , avalanches , accidents and sabotages. The starring , Donald Sutherland, suspects on Nazi duo might be on the premises , because of belonging to ¨ Reich Kinder¨ . He discovers a strange organization ruled by ¨Celda¨ who want to destroy the world economy . The plot wavers between suspenseful and illogical , while everybody involves overacts in an apparent attempt to figure out what the heck's going on .

This thrilling movie about a group of scientific find themselves embarking on a suspenseful investigation contains moving sequences , intrigue , tension and wonderful, coloured locations from Arctic . It displays sizzling scenes about snow-boat and snow-motorcycle on some overwhelming chase sequences that are the movie's best . Dark photography during the night scenes but marvelous cinematography when reflects spectacularly the breathtaking Arctic outdoors by cameraman Alan Hume . Beautifully filmed on location in Glacier Bay National Park, Gustavus, Alaska, USA ,Pinewood Studios, Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, England, UK (studio),Stewart, and Tide Lake ,British Columbia, Canada, Tide Lake, British Columbia .Rousing and exciting musical score by Robert Farnon. The motion picture , well produced by Peter Snell, is regularly directed by Don Sharp. This Canadian adaptation based on the novel by Alistair McLean packs habitual combination included on his books , as foolish dialog , stirring action , impressive locations and colorful characters . Other films based on his novels are the following ¨Force 10 Navarone¨, ¨ Guns of Navarone ¨, ¨ Puppet on chain ¨, ¨ When the eagles dare ¨ and ¨ Breakheart pass ¨ among others . Rating : Acceptable and passable . The picture will appeal to whodunit/thriller buffs

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-

In some ways, I think the rather cold reception "Bear Island" had when it debuted was because author Alistair MacLean set the bar so high with previous film adaptations of his novels. This is the same guy who brought us "The Guns of Navarone", "The Satan Bug" and "Where Eagles Dare"...so I really think people expected a bit too much from "Bear Island". After all, it's a pretty good film but not nearly in the same class as these other movies.

The story is set, naturally, on Bear Island...a speck of land about midway between the top of Norway and Svalbard in the upper Arctic Circle. To say it's remote is a definite understatement. On this actual island are some fictitious features...such as a NATO base, an international research station and an old bombed out Nazi U-boat base.

The research station is the setting for most of the film. Among the multinational cast are some folks who aren't particularly nice. It seems that in the old Nazi base was a shipment of Nazi gold...and these niceness impaired folks want the gold...even if it means killing everyone else there. Lansing (Donald Sutherland) is intent on unraveling the conspiracy.

The cast is generally very good...with some nice veteran actors like Sutherland, Lloyd Bridges, Vanessa Redgrave, Christopher Lee and Richard Widmark. Most are welcome though I think Widmark was horribly cast, as he was supposed to be a German but sounded, well, like he was trying in vain to effect some sort of Nordic accent...maybe.

So is the film good? Well, it's decent...with some nice action and an engaging, albeit farfetched story. Worth seeing...if only to get a load of Widmark's accent!

You read Alistair MacLean's excellent novel, then you sit and watch this film. After you've gotten over the sheer awfulness of it, a question springs to mind. Did anyone involved with this film read the book? The script writers seem to have glanced at the back cover of the paperback edition before churning out this dreck. They didn't read the back cover, just glanced.

I've been a movie geek since my childhood in the early 80's. This is one of the titles that for some reason stuck in my mind, even tho I never saw it because I was too young. Now was the first time I caught it on TV (scandinavian TCM). I'm surprised to see it's only available as a Spanish DVD and has an such a low score on IMDb (5.4/10).

I must say it's one of the better films I've seen this year, although I'm easy to please when it comes to certain types of film and this really is one of them. The locations and set design are amazing. This kind of isolation, feel of cold bleak winter, snow storms are very rarely portrayed so well, it's up there with Carpenter's The Thing. Grab a warm cup of coffee on a rainy day or a whiskey on a darkening evening while watching this.

I saw this without subtitling and had a bit of a trouble keeping up with the plot, even tho I'm pretty fluent in English. There are characters from USA, Germany, Denmark, Poland etc and a lot of exaggerated accents. It also doesn't make it much easier to follow the plot when the actors have similar clothing and are covered all the way, so you can't see their faces when outdoors.

I'm not much into action, but the scenes here worked. They are quite few, but longish and build slowly. There is some noticeable trick cinematography and jump cuts, but they're easily forgiven.

It's a fun detail that the expedition to Bear Island is initially about investigating the global warming. Judging by the original book synopsis, this wasn't the case on Maclean's book, but added to the movie. The movie is already over 30 years old so it's a nice eye opener for those who think global warming is something Al Gore invented.

It's far from perfect movie (from a relatively unknown Hammer horror director!), but the arctic scenery, some enjoyable performances (Sutherland) make up for it. Catch it if you can (TCM shows the widescreen version). It's a true nostalgia trip to a movie land that doesn't seem to exist anymore.

Based on the Alistair MacLean novel this is an at times exciting thriller with a great cast. There are other times when it gets a little bit confusing, there does seem to be a lot of characters doing nothing.

There's a U Boat with loads of stolen gold lying somewhere underneath Bear Island, and there's a lot of dodgy suspects after it. Donald Sutherland plays Frank Lansing, an American whose father just happened to be the Captain of the U Boat. He's got great support from Vanessa Redgrave as Heddi, the doctor in the camp, Christopher Lee though is wasted and Richard Widmark is going through the motions. Decent effort though it just could've been better.

Comparing Alistair MacLean and Ian Fleming is salutary. Both were heavy-drinking Scots who wrote action thrillers, hitting the jackpot in the Fifties and Sixties. But whereas Fleming's novels have risen to be Penguin Modern Classics, MacLean-- once said to be the world's best-selling novelist-- is now totally out of print in the States, and in and out of it in his own country.

Fleming created a flat but fascinating protagonist who became more interesting than the villains and girls he encountered; MacLean never used the same character twice, preferring chase and setting to psychology. His inability to invent interesting female foils was absolute; often they have the same name, Mary or variants thereon. MacLean trusted that the story would be its own reward, but without psychological flesh on the bones his stock situation-- group of professionals in tight-lipped quest for a treasure, one of them a snake in the grass- becomes wearisome.

MacLean's other handicap was that he liked money. After "The Guns of Navarone" hit dollar paydirt, he increasingly wrote with movie adaptation in mind, producing hybrids that were neither literary nor cinematic; whereas Fleming barely lived to see the Bond films blossoming into history's biggest screen moneyspinner.

"Bear Island" is a case study in the frosty aridity of MacLean's "visual" imagination. The gang are placed in a locale he knows and loves: the Arctic, scene of his first hit, "HMS Ulysses", and "Ice Station Zebra", a good film. In the background is World War Two, in which MacLean's naval service was the making of him. The principals are uneasily allied in search of Nazi gold buried on Bear Island, near Spitzbergen. There is much betraying and motive-revelation, chases in boats and on skis and snowmobiles, close-quarters work with fists, knives and guns, before the treasure hunt is played out. But it's all as chilly as the temperature.

To begin with, the film was an Anglo-Canadian co-production, never a promising sign; it was shot in British Columbia with a cast ill at ease with their roles. Donald Sutherland, the Canadian contribution, gawps and mumbles in his usual fashion, hardly the strong silent MacLean hero. Vanessa Redgrave-- incredibly, this was the part with which she chose to follow an Oscar for "Julia"-- is a statuesque Scandinavian with a wobbly Ingrid Bergmanesque accent. Christopher Lee seems to pine for cape and fangs. Lloyd Bridges, the bad apple, hams it up in a manner anticipating his turn to actual self-parody in "Airplane!".

All are often encased in anoraks and big fur hoods, so knowing who is doing what to whom is a puzzle. The pace is crippled by the conditions: fights seem slapstick, and there is a ludicrous moment when several characters flounderingly "break into a run" knee deep in snow, at a leaden pace. The icy scenery is attractive, but to get scale the camera has to stand well back, diminishing the figures of the actors and making their manoeuvres seem as trivial as a puppet show.

Director Don Sharp, as Ken Annakin noted in his memoirs, was better at derring-do than humour, but nobody goes to MacLean for a laugh: here too he is unlike Fleming, whose pawky vein of wit was broadened by the Bond scenarists and has preserved the early 007 entries magnificently. The solemnity of "Bear Island"'s furry, flailing personnel becomes risible.

The picture, in short, was a weary and chilly haul for the audience. Not that many were given the chance; it was hardly released to cinemas and became a TV schedule filler. It might as well have been a midatlantic melange from Lord Grade.

I avoided seeing this for over 40 years, though I had lived in Northern B. C. in 1978-79 near where it was filmed. In fact, much of the cast had telephones hooked up to their rooms in Stewart, B. C. for the duration of the shoot, and therefore when the new phone books came out in 1979 they were listed under their well-known names (but, of course, the lines had been disconnected by then).

Anyway, I found this to be quite a good movie and better than most other Maclean adaptations. Certainly the production values, direction, editing, sound, and cinematography are all very good.

The acting is at times questionable, but depends on how much you like the actors: I have never found Donald Sutherland compelling.

I don't think this is a very good film.

There are a lot of iffy accents. An all star cast don't seem to have any enthusiasm. Donald Sutherland puts in just about the worst performance I have ever seen from him. He talks in a monotonous drawl and just seems bored with the whole thing.

There is some action but it isn't very exciting and the whole film seems gloomy and grey with no real spark.

As I said the cast don't look like they really want to be there and appear to be going through the motions.

I haven't read the book so not sure if the film is like it or not but if the book is as poor as the film then I wonder why they bothered to make it.

An all star cast ought to have meant a better film but this is definitely not very good in my opinion.

Hard to find Bear Island from the master of spy-thriller Alistair MacLean's novel, is too much overlooked picture as its reputation suggest, it takes place at far off and frozen Norwegian Bear Island nearby artic circle, where has an UN's research climatic station lead by a notorious German scientist Dr. Otto Geran (Richard Widmark) and an international team of expert scientists studying the climates changes worldwide which is behind of the melting of polar ice caps, turns out that such remote place was in WWII German's outpost of U-boats, also spread some whispers about a Nazi's gold hidden somewhere in the island.

Just on arrival on Bear Island US's station the German descendant Frank Lansing (Donald Sutherland) together the American Smithy (Lloyd Bridges) and also from Iron Curtain the bleak Polish Lechinski (Christopher Lee) teaming up with researchers on the former Nazi's base, there Lansing is introduced with Norwegian Dr. Heddi Lindquist (Vanessa Redgrave), as expect each one has a reason to stay there, the Nazi gold, however Lansing actually is the son the former Captain of U-Boat 351, he supposedly wanna knows about his old dad died on WWII, the forthcoming events will baffled him, meanwhile some weird accidents start to happen whenever someone is alone or in pairs, then came up the code name Celda that means the unknown leader behind of all tragic events.

Alistair Maclean is one my favorite spy-thriller writer, he wrote on similar freeze environment another plot as on Ice Station Zebra, magnificently shot on the vastness of Canadian frosty landscape, also the gloomy atmosphere on U-Boat submarine cave, it made a perfect backdrop to delve into a spy-hunt-thriller, criminally underrated.

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First watch: 1986 / How many: 2 / Source: TV-Youtube / Rating: 7.

I've seen this film I don't know how many times and I never can remember the ending... I think that is probably because so much of the preamble in this overlong arctic drama is dull and listless. Certainly it has an A-list cast, but somehow the whole just doesn't equal the sum of the parts. Richard Widmark ("Otto") heads up a group of scientists on the eponymous island that was formerly used as a Nazi submarine base. It doesn't take us long to discover that on board one of the abandoned U-boats is a the stuff to give "Goldfinger' a wet dream - and someone amongst them is determined to secure it for themselves, regardless of the increasing mortality rate amongst their colleagues. The snowscapes do lend much eeriness and chill to this Alistair MacLean thriller, but the acting isn't remotely joined up. Vanessa Redgrave sports a ropey accent as "Dr. LIndquist" and Donald Sutherland just seems to be in a jovial, Errol Flynn mode for much of his performance as "Lansing" before the thing starts to slide, rather stolidly, towards an ending that really does disappoint. It's a good story, this - plenty of double dealing in the stye of "Ice Station Zebra" (1968) and nobody knows whom to trust. Thing is, Don Sharp just doesn't build on that mistrust; nor on the claustrophobic surroundings of their hostile environment - he just relies too much on the box office status of this well past it's best cast and sadly it just underwhelms.

I've read all of Alistair MacLean's novels, most of them multiple times...this was almost as bad as the job they did on ICE STATION ZEBRA...the musical score was noisy and sounded as if it had been recorded on a battery-operated cassette tape recorder, and what a waste of some great actors and actresses...my main problem with the film is how disjointed it is from scene to scene...one minute people are stranded on a glacier, the next they are driving into town...and how did those two Hitler-youth Nazis get all that stuff (I'll let you find out "what stuff?") up that narrow shaft?! Even my dog wouldn't believe it. Believe this: the novel is better. Films that MacLean wrote the screenplay for are much truer to the original story lines. Fortunately, this film did not end the careers of Regrave, Sutherland, Bridges, and Widmark...

As usual with Alistair McLean, it's a great story, but this time they fooled around with it a little too much, overdoing it into almost a parody, drowning the thriller in deafening music and exaggerated technical effects, waltzing around with snow scooters in wild goose chases, and so on. Everything is good until the stormy night, when everything collapses and relapses into chronic confusion, and on top of it all the actors can't speak clearly. Donald Sutherland is clear enough and sticks to his role all the way, Vanessa Redgrave is fair enough also in her acting as always, Richard Widmark also excels in honesty as usual, and who already in 1979 grapples with the problem of climate change and global warming, Christopher Lee is the greatest actor here though, playing an honest Russian for a change, Lloyd Bridges is queer enough, but in the resulting confusion of the sabotages coming in tautologies, it's not quite clear who fired on whom and who caused all those fires and ruined the generator, the radio mast, mixed up the books and so on. Many seem to have messed with many things, and what about poor Larsen? Was his body ever found? Who killed him and why? What did he try to communicate? Sorry, there is too much confusion in this hullabaloo of intrigues and counter-intrigues.

Still it's worth seeing, if not for anything else then at least for the story and Donald's discovery of his father. Here is the real mystery and central plot of the story – the mysterious fate of the last German u-boat captain, and the scene revealing the u-boat is a thriller in itself you'll always remember.

The UK-Canada co-production treaty of the late Seventies produced a lot of dross. "Bear Island" is better than some of its companions but still no classic.

Alistair MacLean's novel was a turgid affair, written at the start of his long decline as a writer. The film-makers wisely ditch most of his plot but the story they substitute, about an icy hunt for wartime Nazi gold, is no masterpiece of originality. Vanessa Redgrave's Norwegian accent comes and goes (at times, she sounds like the Swedish chef from "The Muppets") and Donald Sutherland tries for depth by speaking - very - very - slowly. Anybody who has seen a few of these films won't take long to guess the identity of the "mystery" villain.

On the credit side, the locations are spectacular and Robert Farnon's music score is appropriately portentous. Don Sharp knows how to direct action (he had been brought in a few years earlier to ginger up another MacLean adaptation, "Pupper On a Chain") and the fights are well-staged.