The Mountain Men (1980)
Review by HTQ4
Film:
DVD:

Features:

• Trailers
  

My Advice: Rent it

Bill Tyler (Heston) and Henry Frapp (Keith) are the two titular mountain men. They are on the hunt for beaver in the young and wild western American frontier. They are a dying breed, since America's westward expansion is continuing to invade not only their frontier, but the Native Americans' land as well. Much to their surprise, a young Indian woman runs away from her Blackfoot tribe to claim Tyler as her "husband." He thinks she gets killed off and therefore he's rid of her, but when he learns she is still alive, he discovers that she is more valuable to him than even he originally thought.

This is a beautiful movie. Of course, when you're shooting your film in the wild countries in and around Yellowstone National Park and the Grand Teton Mountains, it's kind of hard not to make a beautiful movie. My very reliable and trusted sources tell me that this is one of the most accurate depictions of what it was like to be a mountain man ever put on film. And, to be honest, with a Heston in front of the camera and a young Heston putting pen to paper, how could it not be? Weaponry and tactics are incredibly accurate. It's just a shame that it seems they spent most of their time trying to get that right and not enough time on writing dialogue that was true to the time period, but didn't sound forced. If you can get beyond this, it's really a fun movie to watch.

The DVD is nothing really to write home about. It's not in widescreen format, and other than trailers for Legends of the Fall and Geronimo: An American Legend, you get nothing to support this film whatsoever. I hate to say this, but with Heston's recent announcement, it really would be a good idea to get him into a studio with some of the others involved with this project (and all his other projects as well while you're at it) and put a really solid commentary track down before we lose even more insight into American Movie History. Geez, I hope someone's hearing these calls to make this stuff happen. Anyway, at least they got the demographic right while putting the trailers together.

Pick this one up as a rental if you feel like taking a vacation to the mountains, but just can't afford the airfare. You won't be disappointed.