Movie-TV
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(1979 / 1980 British / Canadian film) Bruce Greenwood's first film was a major motion picture for Columbia Films with an all star cast headed by Donald Sutherland and including Vanessa Redgrave, Richard Widmark, Lloyd Nolan, Christopher Lee and Barbara Parkins. Greenwood plays an incidental technician who is silently present throughout the entire film, but he's only decipherable now and then with a head full of long curly hair, a heavy beard and relatively little screen time. Since this is Greenwood's earliest movie appearance, the film is of definite interest to fans, and he does have a few lines, one or two close-ups, and even an uncredited name: Sutherland refers to him once as Tommy. Unfortunately, the film was released to quite disappointing reviews and even with its starry cast resulted in low box office returns. Its European premiere was in December 1979 followed by a limited North American debut in June 1980. The story is an adaption of an Alistair MacLean novel concerning a U.S. meteorological team that is being enigmatically eliminated as they work on a
barren Arctic island. Directed by Don Sharp, it was filmed in late 1978 and early 1979 in Tide Lake, British Columbia and Glacier Bay, Alaska with additional filming at the Pinewood Studios in London. Available on video. Columbia Films (Canadian/Great Britain, 1979) (118 mins.)
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Bear Island marks the first time that Bruce Greenwood's name appeared as a screen credit on a movie. |