The Mountain Men (1980)

Director:

Richard Lang

Writer:

Fraser Clarke Heston (writer)

Release Date:

1 June 1980 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Western

Plot:

A pair of grizzled frontiersmen fight indians, guzzle liquor, and steal squaws in their search for a...

Plot Keywords:

Beaver | Violence | Murder | Death | Tribe

Cast

Charlton Heston	...	Bill Tyler
Brian Keith	...	Henry Frapp
Victoria Racimo	...	Running Moon
Stephen Macht	...	Heavy Eagle
Seymour Cassel	...	La Bont
David Ackroyd	...	Medicine Wolf
Cal Bellini	...	Cross Otter
John Glover	...	Nathan Wyeth
William Lucking	...	Jim Walter (as Bill Lucking)
Ken Ruta	...	Fontenelle
Victor Jory	...	Iron Belly
Danny Zapien	...	Blackfoot Chief
Tim Haldeman	...	Whiskey clerk
Buckley Norris	...	Trapper
Daniel Knapp	...	Trapper

Also Known As:

Wind River (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

Norway:102 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Australia:M | Finland:K-16 | USA:R | Norway:16

Filming Locations:

Bridger-Teton National Forest, Jackson, Wyoming, USA

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

Though it's never explicitly stated in the film, the story takes place during 1838. This is based on the fact that the beaver market was declining and the rendezvous was held on the Popoagie River. The "Era of the Mountain Man" ended two years later.

Quotes:

Bill Tyler: [aiming their rifles] Don't miss.
Henry Frapp: I never miss.

Keith Steals The Heston Project

It's always good to have a movie star father and young Fraser Clarke Heston was able to get father Charlton to star in a film adaptation of his script about The Mountain Men. Of course Dad was able to get friend Brian Keith into the film as well, they had worked together previously on a western called Arrowhead back in the salad days of both of them.

Charlton Heston has always been generous with praise of his colleagues so I don't think he begrudged Brian Keith a bit for totally stealing this film away from the Heston clan. Keith's portrayal of the rollicking, hard drinking, hard cussing, mountain man pal of Charlton Heston is the highlight of the film. It's the main reason to see The Mountain Men.

Another reason is the grand location cinematography in the Grand Teton mountains in Wyoming where this was filmed. This in fact is where the Kit Carsons, Jim Bridgers, Thomas Fitzpatricks and the rest of that hardy breed of men worked at their lonely occupation of trapping beaver pelts for sale.

They were indeed a hardy bunch. Unlike the post Civil War west these guys were in fact outnumbered by the Indians who with their bows and arrows were actually possessing weapon superiority to the muzzle loading single shot muskets the trappers had. You learned Indian ways and skills of all kinds or you did not survive.

The plot of this film has Heston rescuing an Indian princess, Victoria Racimo, a Crow away from her Blackfeet captors and earning the undying hatred of Stephen Macht, a chief among the Blackfeet. Very similar to the plot of Robert Redford's Jeremiah Johnson where Redford was also an object of Indian vengeance.

This film marked the farewell performance of that grand character actor Victor Jory. Jory plays a Crow chief who may look old but seems to have found Viagara long before the FDA approved it.

Unfortunately for The Mountain Men it got caught up in the wake of the approval for Jeremiah Johnson. It suffers unfairly in comparison to the Robert Redford film.

Yet The Mountain Men can definitely stand on its own critically and every other way. And Jeremiah does not have the fabulous Brian Keith in it.