The Mountain Men

Plot synopsis:
Bill Tyler (Heston) is an argumentative, curmudgeonly mountain man. Henry Frapp (Keith) is Tyler's good friend and fellow trapper. Together, they trap beaver, fight Native Americans, and drink at a mountain man rendezvous while trying to sell their "plews", or beaver skins, to a cutthroat French trader named Fontenelle.
Tyler looks for a legendary valley, in Blackfoot territory, "so full of beaver that they just jump in the traps." Running Moon leaves her abusive husband, a ruthless Blackfoot warrior named Heavy Eagle, and comes across the two trappers in the dying days of the fur trapping era. While at first Bill only wants to take her to safety at the rendezvous, she eventually becomes his woman. While trapping Bill and Henry are attacked by Blackfeet and Henry is scalped by Heavy Eagle in front of Bill. Bill runs back to camp and he and Running Moon flee only to be caught. Later, Bill (thinking Running Moon has also been killed) is given a chance to run (similar to the real life event of John Colter) and is chased by warriors whom he initially eludes by hiding in a beaver den. They pursue him until he and Heavy Eagle fall into a raging river. Heavy Eagle makes it to shore and Bill goes over a waterfall. Heavy Eagle tries to make Running Moon his woman again which he cannot do. He knows Bill Tyler survived and will come for her as he had done.
On his survival trek Bill comes across Henry who had survived the scalping and eventually learns that Running Moon is still alive. He and Henry set out to rescue her while they are followed by a pair of trappers (Cassell and Lucking) also looking for the valley of beavers.
The story takes place during 1838, although it's never stated in the film, 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.
The story was written by Heston's son. The film was Lang's directorial debut. This was Victor Jory's last film. John Glover's character Nathan Wyeth was clearly inspired by the historical Nataniel Wyeth, a New England ice merchant who pioneered the marketing of Northwest salmon. Keith's character Henry Frapp could have been inspired by Henry Fraeb, a nineteenth century trapper and fur trader.

Tags: violence, murder

Review:
`Got sand in her, she does,' Brian Keith says when an Indian woman wants to latch on to Charlton Heston; which leads to the normal function of having a mate, and that becomes the main story because the squaws mate from the Blackfoot tribe pursues in getting her back.
The Wyoming Grand Teton national park is an excellent location; it sets the scene for Heston who loves to trap beaver; it sets the scene for a period of time when their where few luxuries; it sets the scene for the battle between Heston and the Blackfoot warrior.
Maligned upon its release for its vivid violence, course language and questionable script, this film plays a bit better a quarter of a century later (now that vivid violence, course language and questionable scripts are almost all Hollywood has to offer!)  Heston and Keith play feisty, rowdy, rugged trappers, swathed from head to toe in pelts and eking out a living selling their wares once a year or so to other frontiersmen.
A variety of other characters turn up along the way including frontier newcomer Glover, old Indian friend Ackroyd and French Canadian trapper Cassel.
Just goes to show that even two well-placed thumbs can be wrong.This is a fairly entertaining film, detailing the rowdy lives of two hunters (Heston and Keith) living in the mountains, drinking bad whiskey and fighting off attacks by bad guy Indians like Heavy Eagle, who scalps poor Keith at one point.
The stereotypes are a little thick in spots, but the story is so well-told that one hardly notices.The film was written by Fraser Clark Heston, Charlton's son, and a fine writer he is, blending humor, action and sentiment all into one neat little package.
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.
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.
Charlton Heston and Brien Keith should be remembered in the History Books for this Movie as one of their Best.
Charlton Heston and Brian Keith, while first-rate in this film, came in second to the stupendous scenery of the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone National Park in this story of two crotchety, fiercely individualistic fur trappers in the mid-18th century who fight the elements, Indians, and occasionally each other.
The action scenes are extremely well done and quite intense, actually--especially when Keith and Heston are ambushed by an Indian war party at their camp--and there is a rollicking scene at a large meadow where the annual trappers' gathering (a sort of swap meet) is held.
certainly the best delivered line of his career.Heston and Keith play grizzled trappers who accept the chore of shepherding a young, green, ex-military type to Rendezvous.
ahhhh, the Indians are mostly European, at least the ones with speaking parts (thinking here of Victory Jory and Stephen Macht, not the devastating Victoria Racimo).Much of the scenery mirrors the earlier Jeremiah Johnson (1972), but, sadly, the emphasis of this film seemed to be the enjoyment of the actors, rather than advancement of plot, historical accuracy, and numerous other niggling little details.I like this movie very much...
Charlton Heston and Brian Keith are fur trappers out west during the mid 1800's.
This one depicts white fur trappers' encounters with native Americans at the time.The lives of mountain men are well portrayed; realistically dramatized.
The dialogue is very interesting to listen to.Considering when it was made, before politcally correct was really in style(not that I approve of P.C. films), and considering its star is Charlton Heston, it's not a bad movie, I enjoyed it.
A duo of valiant frontiersmen named Bill (Charlton Heston) and Henry (Brian Keith) struggle Black Foot , Crow Indians , guzzle liquor , shoot efficiently his preys and in search for a legendary valley plenty of beavers that they jump right into their traps .
Intesesting screenplay by Fraser Clarke Heston , Charlton's son , narrates the odyssey of grizzled scouts , expert hunters that one time dreary of civilization go to West developing their natural senses and becoming into mountain man , as they take part of the wildlife and landscape .
The magnificent cast is starred by an excellent Charlton Heston , a simple man who has no taste for cities and becomes a tough and two-fisted mountain man and Brian Keith as feisty old trapper , both of whom developing an intimate relationship .
There aren't enough movies out there about furtrappers or this extremely adventurous era of our country's history.Brian Keith's character(Frapp)in the movie was the best part.
Rowdy trappers Charleton Heston and Brian Keith take a little time off from trapping beaver and arguing amongst themselves, in order to fight off a hostile tribe of Blackfoot, that takes a special disliking to them after Heston makes off with the war-chief's wife.A crude, action-packed movie, the two leads wear massive helmets of fake hair under even bigger fur hats and seem to be having a lot of fun, spouting hilariously vulgar lines, while they drink, brawl, and shoot their flintlock rifles in an orgy of excessively macho violence.Though not very subtle at all, Heston and Keith's enthusiasm is pretty damn infectious, making this well worth checking out for fans of muscular action yarns.Production values, cinematography, and beautiful Wyoming locations are all first-rate.
Also great is the performance by Brian Keith, who easily steals the movie away from top-billed Charleton Heston!.
However by the time our two heroes, in the film " Mountain Men " Bill Tyler and Henry Frapp (Charlton Heston and Brian Keith) return from their high peaks in the spring of 1838, the fur trade, like the beaver, has all but vanished.
For Bill Tyler his life is saddled with a spirited Indian woman called Running Moon Victoria Racino) who technically belong to a fierce and somewhat brutal warrior called Heavy Eagle (Stephen Macht) who wants her back.
One of my favorite movies, mostly because of Kieth's(Frapp) and Heston's(Tyler's) comical relationship and dialouge.
Yes, the plot is simple and unoriginal, the indians are white actors and drop like flies in battle, but the cinematography is glorious in nearly every scene, the movie works quite well as a "period piece" and the relationships between the characters are fun and believable.
Released in 1980, "The Mountain Men" chronicles the adventures of two mountain men in 1838 played by Charlton Heston and Brian Keith.
When Tyler (Heston) acquires a Native woman named Running Moon (Victoria Racimo) her ex, a ruthless Blackfoot warrior named Heavy Eagle (Stephen Macht), wants her back and will kill to get her.This movie has a bad reputation with critics, but is generally praised by Western fans.
"The Mountain Men" takes the topic of 1972's "Jeremiah Johnson" and mixes it with the tone of 1953's "Hondo" and, more so, 1977's "Grayeagle." It's mostly like the latter two in the way the Native Americans are depicted -- wild and savage.
For instance, the Crow Natives are friendly toward the mountain men in the movie whereas the Blackfoot are hostile.
In any case, if you favor the aforementioned Westerns, you'll probably appreciate "The Mountain Men."I can understand the criticism of the film in that the first act is weak and tempts the viewer to tune out.
Heavy Eagle is also a quality antagonist.I suppose you could say it's a flaw that the principle Native characters speak English too well, but I'm pretty sure the script was written this way to get away from the sometimes laughable broken English that Natives would speak in older Westerns (the screenplay was incidentally written by Heston's son, Fraser).
It would've helped if the Indians spoke their native language in the Native sequences, but it's assumed that they ARE speaking their native tongue, just like Germans are speaking German in WWII movies, not English, even though they're shown speaking English.Numerous other things impressed me about "Mountain Men." For instance, the Natives and their encampments look authentic even while one or two of the Indians seemed to act too modern, e.g. Cross Otter.
Furthermore, there's a lot of muscular Western action with the mountain men fighting the Natives.
While "The Mountain Men" starts off weak it gets better as you catch a grip with the characters and the tone of the movie.
Let me put it this way: I'd watch "The Mountain Men" any day before I'd watch the wildly overrated and lagging "The Wild Bunch." The film runs 102 minutes and was shot entirely in Northwestern Wyoming.GRADE: B.
Western classic starring Charlton Heston and Brian Keith.
The Mountain Men was a western vehicle for acclaimed actor and legend Charlton Heston .
Heston and Keith wander the great American landscape , drink a lot of liquor , murder various critters, Blackfoot Indians and the English language .
The Mountain Men is beautifully shot and ( for the most part) well acted .My only complainant is the casting of white actors for the Indian characters, which is acceptable for a western in 1950.
But once we get introduced to the two guys in this particular deck of cards, the truth comes out: Grizzly Adams, this ain't.Charlton Heston and Brian Keith, who had previously teamed up in their early days in the 1953 western ARROWHEAD, are, respectively, Bill Tyler and Henry Frapp, two grizzled, hard-living mountain men living out in the Grand Tetons of Wyoming in the days just prior to wagon trains and immigrants making the big move out West.
Keith, meantime, gets into something of a running gag feud with Heston as to whether the Indian tribes that keep pursuing them are Crow or Blackfoot.
Not only does it turn out to be Blackfoot, but the Blackfoot chief Heavy Eagle (Stephen Macht) is out to get them after his slave bride Yellow Moon (Victoria Racimo) escapes from his iron grasp, and gets Heston's and Keith's protection.
The end result is, not surprisingly, rather rough and violent.Featuring the usual expected professional performances from old pros Heston and Keith (Keith, in particular, with his four-letter tirades, minus any F-bombs, almost overshadows Heston--not an easy thing to do even when the man who played Moses and Ben-Hur isn't up to par), THE MOUNTAIN MEN is not a particularly spectacular piece of work in the hands of director Richard Lang, but it is hardly the atrocity that a lot of critics made it out to be when it was released in 1980.
This was a project close to Heston's heart, as its screenplay was written by his son Fraser Clarke Heston; and it is true to the historical essentials of the lives of mountain men, if not necessarily to Indian culture.
But with two stalwarts like Heston and Keith leading the way, Racimo being quite good as a squaw, and Macht making for a convincing foe (if not a truly convincing Indian), it makes for solid entertainment, if sometimes drenched in bloodiness and off-color language--particularly as it may have been one of the last reasonably good Westerns made in Hollywood before Cimino's atrocious HEAVEN'S GATE all but killed off everyone's appetite for the genre..
Ford, Wayne, and Bond never had this much fun doing a movie.Keith and Heston play two grizzled old farts who grumble all the time and shake off injuries in much the Wayne style.
They fight tons of Indians.Heston hooks up with this young woman who becomes central to the story.
He would have kicked butt like Heston and Keith.The movie pits man against man, man against animal, and occasionally woman against man.
All fight with honor, with the exception of one lone Frenchman.Despite my love of good action scenes, my favorite parts of this movie are the wisecracks, especially Keith.
Very nice scenery to look at, cinematography is pretty good all the way, except lighting on some scenes felt a bit unnatural.Even tho it feels like a family comedy, there are a lot of strong scenes and brutal, bloody violence.
May not be that extreme on today's standards, but back in the 80's a scene where a man get's his head chopped off was quite a lot to stomach.The movie has a some real old school stunts, might not be a good idea to watch this if you're easily shocked by western style stunts involving horses.
Terrific Grand Tetons scenary, good action, stunt work, passable acting by Heston and Keith, less so by Macht, Cassel and co.
Most of the film deals with a Blackfoot Indian, Heavy Eagle (soap-opera star, David Ackroyd) and his warriors going after mountain man, Bill Tyler (Charlton Heston) for 'stealing' his squaw, Running Moon (Victoria Racimo).
Heavy Eagle has to preserve his honor.There's a side plot about the shortage of beaver that Tyler and his partner/sidekick Henry Frapp (Brian Keith) have to deal with, but this is mostly a pursuit film with Heston being chased all over Wyoming and engaging in lots of hand-to-hand combat with the Blackfoot.
An offbeat "western",with very crude language,a scene of sodomy ,much violence .The reason why you would watch this Heston project is the splendor of the Wyoming landscapes ;the director almost make us believe his heroes have found their Eldorado ,their "Beavers Valley".Much more eventful than "Jeremiah Johnson" ,"Mountain men" came too late ,at a time westerns were overshadowed by sci-fi.The squaw displays woman's lib before its time .Her character is not very plausible though.It's hard to believe she speaks "their" language so well;and anyway her (Indian) husband does speak English too .There's a good use of Brian Keith's character and the last picture is really original and moving..
Bad but Fun. Mountain Men, The (1980) * 1/2 (out of 4)Charlton Heston and Brian Keith play beaver hunters in the early 1800s who battle Indians and eventually take one of the females (Victoria Racimo) with them.
You get really embarrassing scenes of Indians mooning one another, mountain men flicking them off and the childish nature continues and I have to wonder why no one questioned this stuff before the movie was filmed.
You also have Heston and Keith constantly fighting and cussing one another in what seems like a major influence on something like Grumpy Old Men. As for Heston, he certainly doesn't give a good performance here but it's campy enough to be entertaining.
The film starts out with Mr. Bill Tyler (Charlton Heston) meeting up with old friend Henry Frapp (Brian Keith) by way of Frapp knocking Tyler down into the water along with his horses...HAHAHAHA...oh ok sorry I lost it for a second there.
Have seen this movie at least 5 times,and still love it.It's funny,has good action,and the Charlton Heston/Brian Keith combo is great..
Charlton Heston hams it up like never before as a beaver-trapper reluctant to make way for progress and accept the fact that his precious trade is being supplanted by finer materials like silk; Brian Keith provides the brightest spot in the film as Heston's foul-mouthed partner, along with Michel Legrand's beautiful score and the desolate snowy landscapes.
The plot, also involving Indian ambushes, the abduction of a squaw (who, of course, falls for Heston at his hairiest!) and rival trappers (notably Seymour Cassel playing a Canadian), renders the film just about watchable but in no way memorable..
Note to the director: Don't use helicopter shots in westerns.Listen for when Heston farts about five minutes into the movie, and watch as one of the Indians checks his loose dental plate after he jumps over a log..
What do you get when you cast Charlton Heston as a mountain man and put him in a confused movie badly written by his son Fraser?
To the amusement of Brian Keith but the irritation of Charlton Heston.
It is a glimpse at what life MIGHT have been like as the mid-western frontier was being opened up by White American and French trappers.
Brian Keith and Heston seemed to be enjoying their characterizations.
The "love interest" angle with Heston and Running Moon, and the base story line are solid, as is the apparent brotherly love shared between the two main characters.This is a good, solid "easy-entertainment" movie, OK to share with your teens (a little rough language), the family, and/or the wife/girlfriend/significant other.
The film begins with an extended aerial view of aging beaver trapper Bill Tyler(Chuck Heston)slogging through snow with his horse and pack animals.
I suspect the eagle is meant to symbolize the free-spirited lives of the hardy independent trappers on the western frontier at this time(1838).This was the first screen writing by Heston's son, Fraser.
Like the second film he wrote: "Mother Lode", the on location shooting was done in spectacular lush western mountain country.
Heston ends up with an unwanted Indian girl 17 minutes into the movie.