Bear Island (1980)

Otto Gerran (Richard Widmark) leads a NATO approved international UN scientific expedition on climate change to Bear Island in the remote Arctic. He receives an interrupted signal from the advance camp. Frank Lansing (Donald Sutherland) is rescued after falling into the sea from the helicopter arrival. His father was an U-Boat commander. Heddi Lindquist (Vanessa Redgrave) is medical. Lechinski (Christopher Lee) is Russian. Smithy (Lloyd Bridges), Judith Rubin, and Tommy (Bruce Greenwood) are some of the other members. Bear Island is a former U-Boat base and some are secretly looking for Nazi gold.The cast is amazing but this is an expensive Anglo-Canadian flop. I can see the producers thinking they have a great arctic adventure but it moves at a glacial pace. It's not like the action is anything to write home about. The obvious back and forth between the stuntmen and the actors don't help. If anything, the cast is too big. It's hard to keep track of everybody and their relationships. The veteran cast can't inject any life into the stiff dialog. With all the costs, somebody should have spent a few more bucks to write a better script.

"Bear Island" contains a once-in-a-lifetime cast, is based on a popular action novel by Alistair MacLean, and had a considerable budget. So you might think that the end results would be at least of some interest. However, it's anything but. There are a lot of problems I could go on for some time describing, such as the unenthusiastic performances, some murky plot details, and some surprisingly cheap touches despite the large budget. But the biggest problem with the movie is that it's surprisingly boring. Most of the movie is devoted to dialogue, and the dialogue isn't particularly interesting. The few times that the action comes, under the direction of co-writer Don Sharp, at best it comes across as utterly routine, and at it's worst is downright boring. So it's easy to see why the movie got almost no theatrical release. Only for viewers who want to see Donald Sutherland resemble Richard Chamberlain.

"Bear Island" makes the fatal mistake of introducing a dozen characters all at once, with absolutely no development. Who these scientists are and what their purpose is on Bear Island is so vague that I immediately lost interest. Sure there are several exciting chases on snow equipment through breath taking scenery and at least a bunch of nice explosions, but what's missing is a cohesive story line. The editing is so choppy the jumping from one short sequence to the next is nothing but a damn annoyance. It seems as though this was a much longer movie and what you are watching is the edited version. In addition the mumbled audio is at times incomprehensible, and the accents all seem fake. Not recommended. - MERK

This has an interesting cast but that does not unfortunately, make it a good film. 'Bear Island' is based on a novel by Alistair Maclean, a popular writer from the sixties whose novels were consistently on the bestseller lists. The story is set on a boat cruising around the Arctic Circle, and is a strange amalgam of stilted action juxtaposed with a lot of endless talk about whose side everybody is supposed to be on. The ships passengers include Russians, Germans and Norwegians. They're all talking as if World War II is still going on, when the film appears to be set in the present day. The purpose of all this talk is to find a secret stash on the North Pole previously hidden by some- very- nasty- people, so it becomes a chase between the good guys and bad guys to get the loot and there is a lot of talky moralising on the part of the good guys about the virtues of looking for it at all.The luminaries in the cast include Donald Sutherland looking vague and bored, Vanessa Redgrave talking very softly (the good guys), and Richard Widmark and Lloyd Bridges (the bad guys). The only other notable thing about this film is that it includes a very bruising bareknuckle fistfight between Sutherland and how shall we say it, - an Aryan, which has something to do with – well I just don't remember but I think that Donald wins the fight and the good guys have at last something to cheer about.There are a number of meaningless chases across the snow and ice and a couple of explosions where a few minor characters get killed off but it all turns out right in the end. Vanessa Redgrave looks attractive in her fur lined anorak but doesn't have much to do. The scenic background of icebergs and endless floes of ice is effective and the only remotely fun thing about watching this film. Unfortunately none of it amounts to anything much, and the story is too dreary, old-hat and repetitive to be of any interest whatsoever.