a5c7b9f00b On the remote Norwegian Bear Island, used as a submarine base by the Germans during WW2, U.N. scientist Larsen sends a distress signal using an emergency NATO frequency and is received by scientific vessel Morning Rose. A group of people converge on a barren Arctic island. They have their reasons for being there but when a series of mysterious accidents and murders take place, a whole lot of darker motives become apparent. Could the fortune in buried Nazi gold be the key to the mystery? Donald Sutherland and Vanessa Redgrave investigate. 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).<br/><br/>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.<br/><br/>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.<br/><br/>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.<br/><br/>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.<br/><br/>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. I can't say I read the Alistair McLean novel so I have to take the word of other reviewers that the plot bore no resemblance to what McLean wrote. What's here is an average suspense thriller set in the frozen north.<br/><br/>I did however take a look at Bear Island photographs as they bear {pun intended} to the scenery here. It was not a huge mass of snow. Of course that could be because the film may have been shot in the winter and the pictures I saw may have been summer.<br/><br/>Bear Island is roughly halfway between the northern coast of Norway and Spitzbergen in the Arctic Sea. A team of scientists headed by Richard Widmark is up there for scientific reasons. One of his team, Donald Sutherland, is hoping to find some information about his father who was a U-Boat captain. Seems that back in the big war, the Germans had a base there for their submarines who were preying on Allied convoys to Murmansk.<br/><br/>Of course Sutherland finds a lot more than he bargained for and he and gal scientist pal Vanessa Redgrave have to fend off some nasty people anxious to get their hands on what the contents of Dad's old U-Boat has.<br/><br/>The actions sequences are done nicely. The situations are a bit hokey especially the idiocy about maintaining radio silence even as team members are being killed.<br/><br/>I might wear sunglasses watching this. You might get a case of snow blindness if you care to view Bear Island.
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