Le Secret de la banquise

Original title: Bear Island

IMDb RATING

5.8/10

2.9K

YOUR RATING

Vanessa Redgrave, Donald Sutherland, and Lawrence Dane in Le Secret de la banquise (1979)

On the remote Norwegian Bear Island, used as a submarine base by the Germans during World War II, U.N. scientist Larsen sends a distress signal using an emergency N.A.T.O. frequency, and is received by scientific vessel Morning Rose.

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Action Adventure Mystery Thriller

On the remote Norwegian Bear Island, used as a submarine base by the Germans during World War II, U.N. scientist Larsen sends a distress signal using an emergency N.A.T.O. frequency, and is ... Read allOn the remote Norwegian Bear Island, used as a submarine base by the Germans during World War II, U.N. scientist Larsen sends a distress signal using an emergency N.A.T.O. frequency, and is received by scientific vessel Morning Rose.On the remote Norwegian Bear Island, used as a submarine base by the Germans during World War II, U.N. scientist Larsen sends a distress signal using an emergency N.A.T.O. frequency, and is received by scientific vessel Morning Rose.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

5.8/10

2.9K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Videos1

Trailer 1:19

Trailer

Photos53

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Storyline

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Trivia
An announcement at the end of the closing credits reads "Coming Soon -Alistair MacLean's Goodbye California". This movie was intended as the first in a series of Alistair MacLean adaptations, which would have included "El Dorado", "Athabasca", "Night Without End", and "The Way to Dusty Death". The next intended movie in the series, "Goodbye, California", was to be shot with a budget of between $12-$13 million. However, due to this movie's disappointing box-office performance, "Goodbye, California", and the other titles were never made by producer Peter Snell, who had bought the rights to numerous MacLean works in 1975, including ones at the time that had not even been published or written yet. Snell, however, did get La Tour Eiffel en otage (1980) and Night Watch (1995) made for television.

Goofs
When everyone is outside after the generator explosion it is blowing a blizzard, but the flames are rising vertically with minimal wind disturbance rather than being virtually horizontal, revealing that wind machines are being used just on the area where the actors are.

Crazy credits
"Coming soon: Alistair MacLean's Goodbye California"

Alternate versions
The Region 1 DVD has certain graphic elements removed. Most notably, the view of the captain Lansing's cabin presents the captain's corpse being handcuffed to bulkhead and another corpse sitting by the desk. (Later the viewer learns it was an SS operative.) However, in the censored version only a glimpse of the captain Lansing's corpse is shown, the SS-man is totally cut out. This censorship severely interferes with the plot, as it is crucial to the novel to understand the motives of captain Lansing.

Connections
Referenced in The Bond Essentials (2002)

User reviews52

Featured review

Good movie

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.