Customer Reviews

Bear Island [VHS]

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I saw this movie years ago and many times since over the years...and, I loved it!

This is an all-star cast including such veterans as Vanessa Redgrave, Donald Sutherland, Richard Widmark, Lloyd Bridges, etc (The list goes on). This is one of the better and more enjoyable espionage and mystery movies I have seen over the years and I remember it well.

A weather research vessel en route in the North Atlantic receives a prematurely terminated radio wave transmission. The mystery deepens when the "transmission" (initiated by a 'known colleague' and scientist) is discovered to be hailing from a remote uninhabited island located in the sub-zero Antarctic waters of the North Sea.

The Plot thickens when the research ship feels compelled to investigate; knowing that the island has been deemed off-limits by the international NATO alliance. The character development is great, unfurling hidden secrets of the island and thereby exposing the different motives of each scientist for being where they aren't supposed to be.

A great movie and another I would love to see (and have requested to other retailers) to be marketed on DVD.

If you can get your hands on a VHS copy, I recommend it highly.

eb - Tyler, Tx

I don't know where some of the other reviewers got their story but the plot involves Donald Sutherland as a researcher who has joined a NATO expedition to study, in a sense, global warming, on an island deemed off limits because of a NATO radar station. The all star cast of researchers, (Lloyd Bridges, Vanessa Redgrave, Richard Widmark and an incredibly tiny role by Christopher Lee) end up at the frozen, isolated, research station where already someone has mysteriously died.
From there we end up with Nazi U-boat pens, spies and a whole lot of people running around in the snow trying to figure out just who among them is trying to kill them.

As a spy thriller its about average. There is little character development and at times confusing as to just who is who. Everyone has different motives for doing what they do which gives a hint that the back story on every character might just in fact be more interesting than the movie. Had they cut down on the whole "snow chase" aspect of the movie and more on the Nazi's and the U-boat pens, it might have been a better film.

Sutherland looks tired through most of the movie and Christopher Lee has about 20 lines in the whole film, then dies. Why on earth he did this movie, I don't know. Redgrave is good but how she suddenly ends up the romantic interest of Sutherland, whose other romantic interest dies a few days before, is never explained.

I haven't read the book by Alistair MacLean, but from what I have heard, this film chopped it to pieces.

All said, I don't mind this movie. Its good for a Sunday afternoon when you have nothing to do. Sadly, its not on DVD and there are tons of pirate copies out there. My video, despite being an original, is awfully grainy and parts of it blurry and the colors washed out. Beware when even trying to get an original copy.

Bear Island is one of those movies I want to like more for all its cheesiness. Barely released theatrically, cut heavily for home video and rarely shown on TV, it marked the end of the big screen Alistair MacLean goldmine (subsequent adaptations would be straight to cable) and, pretty much, the viability of most of the cast as leading players - Donald Sutherland, Vanessa Redgrave and Richard Widmark in particular would soon be relegated to the little leagues or supporting roles. At times it's like a bad accent competition, with Richard Widmark's German and Christopher Lee's Polish faring better than Vanessa Redgrave's Norwegian ("Yuust becorzz somwun haas givan anne ohrdoor?") which at least adds a little variety to her usual flat delivery of dialog. Maybe Donald Sutherland should have tried one too because he spends huge chunks of the movie sounding bored stiff, not helped by being required to play one scene in red longjohns and trapper's cap.

There's nothing new here: multinational UN climate change expedition to the Arctic is beset by mysterious deaths and accidents related to a fortune in Nazi gold in the ruins of a nearby U-boat pen, with all the predictable plot turns. This being Alistair MacLean, no-one is what they claim to be, and this being an adaptation of a novel virtually nothing bears any resemblance to what was on the printed page (much of which took place on the voyage to the island). Aside from one good `accidental' poisoning sequence the book was hardly one of MacLean's best efforts, so that's no great loss. It has its moments if you're in an undemanding mood - there's a memorably atmospheric shot of the ship passing the clifftop graveyard of German U-boat crews, while the U-boat pen set is genuinely impressive - and it's well photographed on some striking remote locations, but it's more filler than main course.

As a spy thriller this is low key,one of the last maclean cinema outings,and it shows,if you read the book,the movie is nothing like it,however I was able to get a proper dvd widescreen copy in the uk from a private seller and I have to say the movie looks better,great snow locations,only ever seen before on betamax and the pits vhs tape,so hunt around and if you can get on dvd film my give a better viewing.

The tape appears like new but the image "bounces" in my VHS player, making the image impossible to watch. Other tapes in my player do not bounce.

Alistair MacLean wrote many entertaining and exciting books (if you discount the later ones from The Golden Gate onwards). Many were made into films. I found the films were hit and miss. On the hit side we had Where Eagles Dare, Guns of Navarone, Puppet on a Chain and Fear Is The Key, to name but 4. On the miss side were Force 10 From Navarone, The Golden Rendezvous, and this one.

Firstly I'd recommend all who wish to find out about the book to buy it; its a really well written thriller. However, this film Bears (excuse the intended pun) NO resemblance to the book.

The plot is threadbare to start with, so the actors - who include some reasonably accomplished ones such as Donald Sutherland, Vanessa Redgrave and Richard Widmark - have little to go on. I really have no idea what the screenwriters thought they were doing with this one.

Its a neo-Nazi plot involving a wartime U-Boat that is marooned in a remote Arctic location and it still contains bullion from the war years. The violence is random (rather like the screenwriter's ability) and little happens with any degree of plausability. I feel sorry for the actors (which also include Christopher Lee and Lloyd Bridges) who have this rubbish to work with.

Of all the poor films made from adaptations of MacLean books this must rank as the worst. It could have been written by a pre-pubescent child, and frankly is a waste of the acting talent. Its a shame this story was so ruined as it could have been an interesting one if not for the inane screenplay.

An intense thriller set on an island in the frozen Arctic. Scientists come to study the island while others are there to find Nazi gold hidden in an old German U-boat den. Who is who is the puzzle. When the Nazi gold horde is discovered, who will survive the lust is almost the bigger puzzle. It is a shame that this movie has not been released on DVD.

It is so long time since I saw the movie that I forgot about what the story is about. But never the less the movie was good.