The Mountain Men
|
List Price: Our Price: $5.78 You Save: $9.21 (61%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $1.55 (click here) Category: DVD See more DVD releases |
|---|
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
Movie Reviews of The Mountain Men
Movie Review: Just as I had remembered it!
Summary: 4 Stars
I grew up on a farm and watched this often. I loved it then and the same holds true now. Although, the pictures can get quite grainy.Movie Review: This child finds this here movie rather mediocre.
Summary: 3 Stars
"The Mountain Men" is about two aging trappers, Bill Tyler (Charlton Heston) and Henry Frapp (Brian Keith), and their adventures during the waning days of the Rocky Mountain beaver trade (1840's?). Despite their dissimilar personalities, Tyler is a taciturn loner and Frapp is boisterous and outgoing, they've been friends for decades. With beaver getting scarce and the price of plews bottoming out, Tyler and Frapp face changing times. However, they continue to search for an elusive valley where it is said the beaver are so plentiful that they're just begging to be caught. Along the way they meet up with Running Moon (Victoria Racimo),the runaway abused wife of a Blackfoot chief, Heavy Eagle (Stephen Macht). Needless to say, Heavy Eagle wants both his wife back and Tyler's scalp- although we get the impression he is far more interested in the later.
As a film "The Mountain Men" is pedestrian. It's not too hard understand why it was box office and critical flop. It's direction is bland, the musical score is overblown, and plot is full of ridiculous implausibilities. For example: characters are shown wandering around a vast wilderness yet they bump into their friends with a frequency that would be tough to attain if they lived in a small suburb. Also this is the kind of film in which Indian warriors apparently withdraw from battle to allow for maudlin, overwrought death scenes to be performed without interruption.
Further, all the AmerIndian characters are portrayed by non-AmerIndian actors. And everyone speaks English- so Crow, Blackfeet, and mountain men all speak the same dialect of Southern Califorinese. Also this is one of those movies in which Indian warriors throw their lives away by charging (on foot!) right into the muzzles of their enemies' rifles. If the real Blackfeet were as incompetent at warfare as they are shown here then they would have never garnered their fearsome reputation.
The weaknesses of this movie are glaring. However, it does have Chuck Heston who brings his considerable amount of screen presence to the film. Although that thing he is wearing on his head is a distraction (I'm not talking about his hat), Heston takes to these historical roles like a duck to water. Brian Keith, who is unfortunately saddled with a lot of over-the-top vulgar dialogue, shows that he was always an underrated actor. Also, not even a hack director can screw-up the beauty of Wyoming (I'll join the chorus- why wasn't the DVD presented in widescreen?)
Finally, I'm a big fan of A.B. Guthrie's mountain man novel, "The Big Sky" and it's obvious that Frasier Heston, the screenwriter, is too. How the characters talk and what they talk about seemed to have been lifted wholesale from Guthrie's novel. So much so that I wonder if Guthrie's estate ever asked for royalties. "This child," "gone under," "shines," the use of the "n" word, and the sense of loss of a country that was free and unspoiled about to overtaken by others less inclined to leave it untouched are all from Guthrie's novel.
Overall, if you're interested in mountain men and/or a fan of adventure films then you may enjoy this movie. Although be prepared to suspend your disbelief throughout.
Movie Review: Charleton Heston and Brian Keith; other than that, meh.
Summary: 3 Stars
1980 film, The Mountain Men. Charlton Heston has played in Ben Hur; Ten Commandments; Planet of the Apes; Omega Man; Midway; Gray Lady Down; TV's Dynasty drama series; and other legendary roles. Mountain Men isn't one of those caliber. Not even close. Brian Keith has played in The Wind And The Lion; The Parent Trap; Hardcastle and McCormick; TV's Family Affair sitcom; Wagon Train; The Virginian; and other legendary roles. Mountain Men isn't one of those caliber. Not even close. However, having those two actors in this film nearly redeems it. Nearly. It is worth watching, but not one I'll watch over and over and over like the aforementioned handfuls either actor has been part of. On the other hand, maybe I was expecting too much because of who was in it. I did like the expanse of the wilderness, the scenery was superb, but that credit goes to whoever found the location and isn't so much a cause for kudos otherwise to producers or directors upon that basis. I liked Victoria Racimo's portrayal of the squaw Running Moon, and she is as fine an actress as the two male leads are actors in my opinion. Victoria has played in Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman; Doogie Howser M.D.; Spenser For Hire; Falcon Crest; Fantasy Island; The Chisholms; Logan's Run; Black Sheep Squadron; Hawaii Five-O; The Day of the Dolphin; Red Sky at Morning; and other notable roles. She did just fine in Mountain Men and professionally acted her role well. But this film is like trying to eat low sodium and low sugar foods. You need to WANT to watch it. It borders on a 4 star rating, but I can't fathom respecting myself if I gave it a 5 star nod.Movie Review: Not A Heston Classic.
Summary: 3 Stars
I bought this movie when I saw it recently at a grocery store. It didn't live up to my expectations. This movie features an ageing Heston and Brian Keith. Now of course I knew this coming in, but that isn't really the problem. The problem comes in how preposterous it was to see these two old guys fighting off indians and whatnot with relative ease. The movie is just plain bad. I honestly had trouble sitting through it. This movie tries to be harsh, using profanity and sexual situations. It then tries to be a movie for the family using comedy. This movie is nothing but one big jumble of mixed themes and intentions. I'm giving this movie three stars because I like Charlton Heston and Brian Keith. Just don't sit down with this movie expecting to be satisfied with the plot of the movie, or the flow, the tone, the logic. Just sit down and study these ageing actors and be glad we have this glimpse into their later years. It's hard to believe that this movie was less than a decade later after films like Soylent Green, The Omega Man, Gray Lady Down. Heston put on a lot of weight. He hobbles around the way I have seen him in other films. I think the man had back problems. I am simply saying that their is nothing dynamic at all about Heston in this picture. I think Brian Keith has more charm and appeal in this film, even though all he does is act like a rough and rowdy mountain man.
Sorry guys, but this movie is far from great. Thanks anyway, really. :)
Movie Review: The country was ours for the taking
Summary: 3 Stars
THE MOUNTAIN MEN is a just okay actioner, the story of veteran mountain men Bill Tyler (Charlton Heston) and his friend Henry Frapp (Brian Keith) circa 1825, the Blackfoot woman, Running Moon (Victoria Racimo) they kidnap and the bloodthirsty brave Heavy Eagle (Stephen Macht) who resents it.
The film, photographed mostly in Wyoming, is postcard pretty although Columbia, as is their wont, presents only the full-screen version. Keith more or less steals things as the boisterous mountaineer Frapp, although his character isn't much different from Heston's. Only the paychecks were different, I guess. Unlike many westerns of the last quarter century or so, the Native cultures - in this case Blackfeet and Crow - aren't given much screen time. Heavy Eagle paints his face and mistreats his woman, but that's about it as far as cultural investigation goes. If anything the Crow and Blackfeet come across as the rowdy boys of the high pines, mooning their defeated enemy and stealing each others horses on a fairly regular basis.
If you've seen and are a fan of Robert Redford's Jeremiah Johnson THE MOUNTAIN MEN may disappoint you. This isn't a thoughtful reflection on nature, or the clash of cultures, or much of anything else. Rather it's 100-minutes of chase and pursuit in buckskin and floppy bearskin robes. If you want to turn off the critical facilities for a couple of hours and enjoy an old-fashioned action flick, this one is probably as good as any.