| Bear Island | |
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Official theatrical poster |
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| Directed by | Don Sharp |
| Produced by | William Hill Peter Snell |
| Written by | Alistair MacLean Murray Smith David Butler Don Sharp |
| Starring | Donald Sutherland Vanessa Redgrave Richard Widmark Christopher Lee Lloyd Bridges |
| Music by | Robert Farnon |
| Cinematography | Alan Hume |
| Editing by | Tony Lower |
| Release date(s) | August 1980[1] |
| Running time | 118 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
Bear Island is a 1979 British-Canadian thriller film based on the novel Bear Island by Alistair MacLean. It was directed by Don Sharp and starred Donald Sutherland, Vanessa Redgrave, Richard Widmark, Christopher Lee and Lloyd Bridges.
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A UN expedition of scientists from different countries come to barren arctic Bear Island, between Svalbard and northern Norway, to study climate change. However, several of them turn out to be more interested in the fact that (according to the film) there was a German U-boat base on the island during World War II. American scientist Frank Lansing (Donald Sutherland) has come because his father was a U-boat commander who died there, and as accidents start to decimate the expedition he begins to realise that some of his colleagues are after a shipment of gold aboard the U-boat that his father commanded.
While the interiors were shot in Pinewood Studios outside London, the outdoor scenes were shot in British Columbia and Alaska, depicting a much more dramatic landscape than the real Bear Island offers. According to the book The Hollywood Hall of Shame it was the most expensive film ever made in Canada up till then.[2]
The Swedish invention called Larven (The Caterpillar) by Lennart Nilsson is used in the chases around the island.
The film is rated R13 in New Zealand and it contains violence.
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