Watch Bear Island For Free

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

The movie is surprisingly subdued in its pacing, its characterizations, and its go-for-broke sensibilities.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

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

"Five U.S.A." butchered "Bear Island" yesterday afternoon,the net result being not worth watching.A significant proportion was out of focus,the sound unintelligible,the effect of the flickering visuals almost stroboscopic.From the wreckage it might hardly be fair to criticise what may well have been a masterpiece of cinema for all I know although the bits I did see don't give that theory a great deal of credence. Certainly the acting didn't seem to be up to much,Mr Donald Sutherland apparently having his dialogue written by Harold Pinter,the others by the balloon filler for the old wartime action comics,being of the "Gott in Himmel,Fritz",variety. There is an early McGuffin about climate change but basically "Bear Island" is yet another 'Search for Nazi Gold',a plot that even 30 years ago was sprouting whiskers. Mr Lloyd Bridges tries hard to keep a straight face and Mr Sutherland dives into water cold enough to freeze a polar bear's chuff and comes out wisecracking. Some guy gets barbecued by a Verey Pistol and is blown clear out of a ship's bridge,floating away on his back like a holiday maker at Clacton. If these excerpts,gleaned from a confusing melange of sounds and images are anything to go by I probably wouldn't have much liked "Bear Island" anyway,but it would have been nice if "Five U.S.A." had given me the opportunity.

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'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...