The Mountain Men
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Movie Reviews of The Mountain Men
Movie Review: Entertaining Story of the Fur Trappers of the Rockies
Summary: 3 Stars
"The Mountain Men" tells the story of two free-spirited fur trappers along the Rocky Mountain range in the mid-19th century. Billy Tyler(Charlton Heston) and Henry Frapp (Brain Keith) are two rather down-on-their luck trappers living the good life on the wide open frontier, trapping beaver, going to rendezvous, and getting drunk. But the pair get caught up in a raid by Blackfeet Indians and Tyler winds up gaining the affections of Running Moon, the wife of the powerful Blackfeet warrior Heavy Eagle, who soon becomes obssessed with killing Tyler and taking back his "property". Tyler and Frapp spend most of their time paling around and trying to keep one step ahead of the vengeful Heavy Eagle, before finally forced into the obligatory final confrontation. "Mountain Men" is entertaining and interesting in that it depicts a timeperiod often ignored in modern film. While I felt that there was a bit of unnecessary silliness in certain segments, the film held my interest, especially so as it shows the hardships faced by many of the longhunters who went out as the outriders of white civilization, as well as the strong relationship between the whites and the native tribes with whom they lived and died. It is too bad that films of this genre are few and far between. I would also recommend the other fur-trapping classic "Jeremiah Johnson".
Movie Review: How The West Was Won
Summary: 3 Stars
Although I enjoy the acting of Charlton Heston this DVD of the Mountain Men is not one of his Oscar winning performances. With that said it is still an enjoyable film with Brian Keith acting a part that is out of character from the usual roles he plays.
I agree to a point with other reviews on the DVD about it effects lose from showing the nature scenes in full screen and not wide screen. I find what has been neglected in the reviews by others about the film is the struggle that is faced by all its characters. First the two mountain men are struggling with the decline of the fur industry and their future in it. Secondly the Native Americans are struggling with the White Man entering upon and changing their way of life. I feel by watching the DVD you get a chance to look at some of the problems that must have been faced by both sides during this period of change in American history.
All in all an enjoyable DVD with a great perspective of how the West must have been won.
Movie Review: Powerful Performance
Summary: 3 Stars
While I found the film long and the music tiresome, there was one OUTSTANDING performance - Stephen Macht playing Heavy Eagle! He brought incredible depth and texture to the character - playing against stereotype - fighting for his land and his woman. Macht, though not a Native American, captured the strength and nobility of the Indian nation; yes, there was cruelty and violence in the film, but there was also a deep understanding of the human condition and what it is to be persecuted without end and driven from the land of one's birth.Movie Review: Full Screen? What studio genius thought that up?
Summary: 3 Stars
A wonderful outdoor epic stuffed into a 1.33:1 format? What idiot from Columbia came up with that suggestion? This is a movie that NEEDS widescreen! It didn't do well at the box office because it was sold to the public as a zany comedy, which it is not. An accurate picture of the latter days of the fur trade with more than its share of delightful one-liners and action. Brian Keith shows how scene stealing should be done. This is a guys movie. Would have been 4 stars in widescreen, Columbia!Movie Review: Undemanding at best
Summary: 2 Stars
One of the last major batch of Westerns trying to cash in on the expected success of Heaven's Gate (Eagle's Wing, Cattle Annie and Little Britches, Tom Horn, The Long Riders, Barbarosa, The Legend of the Lone Ranger), The Mountain Men has a serviceable enough script for a throwaway action movie but is hampered by some clumsily abrupt editing and director Richard Lang's rather severe limitations as an action director. Little registers and Charlton Heston and Brian Keith's ageing trappers stalked by Stephen Macht's vengeful Indian never particularly convince as engaging characters or as symbols for a dying way of life thanks in part to an overly predictable script from Fraser Clarke Heston. Victor Jory offers an amusing cameo in his last film as a senile chief and John Glover briefly livens things up as a tenderfoot who rides along for a spell, but Jeremiah Johnson this ain't.
It's worth noting that Sony's Region 2 PAL DVD offers a good 2.35:1 widescreen transfer, unlike the botched fullscreen NTSC release.