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. A soaring golden eagle is shown several times, as if we were that eagle. The eagle reappears in the last scene, as Tyler and his young squaw are leaving her village for who knows where. 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. The snowy Tetons are often seen in the background,while much of the early action takes place in the green watery Jackson's Hole. At other times, probably the snow-capped Wind River range is in the background, while the action takes place near the river. Tyler even visits a Yellowstone geyser field in winter. The action often moves back and forth between summer-like conditions and snowfields, making it difficult to figure out if these are season or microclimate changes. The film is well paced, with abundant action scenes interspersed with various other types of scenes. Tyler is soon joined on his lonely journey by his wandering galloping friend Henry Frapp(Brian Keith), whom he doesn't recognize at first, and who chases him down into a spectacular tumble into a lake edge. They are soon joined by the scout for perhaps the first wagon train for Oregon. They scoff at the idea that Oregon is a desirable destination for settlers. But, Tyler learns that the market for beaver pelts has gone sour.This is further confirmed when they later go to the annual rendezvous, where the only beaver pelt buyer tells them that beaver hats have gone out of style.The other problem is that beaver have nearly been exterminated. Meanwhile, some Crow show up and claim the trapper's stock really belongs to them. This argument is subverted by an attack by a Blackfoot war party, the Crow and whites joining to pursue the Blackfoot back to their village. There, a young squaw(Running Moon) attacker is knocked out by Tyler. They take her with them(Why?). At first, she is defiant, but eventually they find out she doesn't like her abusive husband war chief Heavy Eagle.(Why is he abusive? Because she hasn't become pregnant?. Because she is flirtatious and wilful? Or is he just a mean person?). Thus,she eventually prefers to stay with the trappers, despite their protests.Seems she was sold by her father to Heavy Eagle(not the usual Blackfoot custom.) This little group then travels to the rendezvous, where the trappers engage in the usual boisterous and commercial activities of such events. Running Moon kicks Tyler in the groin when he flirts with another squaw, signaling that she claims him as her exclusive mate. The trio is later attacked by Heavy Eagle's warriors, with the idea of retrieving Running Moon and stealing their stock. Tyler and Running Moon escape, but Frapp is partially scalped and left for dead. Tyer and Running Moon then travel around, trapping and cementing their relationship. Eventually, Heavy Eagle attacks again, trampling Running Moon, whom Tyler thinks is killed, and capturing Tyler. Tyler is given a chance to run for his life, similar to what really happened to trapper John Colter. Miraculously, he escapes to have several additional spectacular encounters with Heavy Eagle, who won't rest until Tyler is dead.Tyler again encounters and joins Frapp, who miraculously survived his partial scalping. Tyler eventually learns that Running Moon is alive, thus travels with Frapp to Heavy Eagle's village for a final confrontation. On the way, Frapp dies in combat. The two contestants for Running Moon charge at each other, like Medieval knights in a joust, knocking each other off their horses. The fight continues. Of course, Tyler emerges the survivor, though not the victor(view film to see what I mean).. In the parting scene, in the foreground, we see Frapp's corpse laid out on a platform, as was the Blackfoot custom, as Tyler and Running Moon ride off into the unknown. Actually, I found the characters of Running Moon and Heavy Eagle the most interesting. I would have liked to know more about their relationship. Running Moon seemed unusually wilful and spunky for a Blackfoot woman, which may have been their main problem. The film implies that the fault lay entirely with Heavy Eagle, but we never hear his side of the story.The plot of this film is so similar to that of the '51 "Across the Wide Missouri", starring Clark Gable, that it can be considered a remake. Gable's mountain man was buckskinned, rather than dressed in furs, and considerably more urbane than Heston's. Seems that Blackfoot, in particular, had a long-standing grudge against whites, after several were killed by the Lewis and Clark expedition, caught stealing stock. If you enjoyed this film, you will likely enjoy a number of other older films about frontier trappers that I am familiar with. These include: "Hudson's Bay", starring Paul Muni, "The Last Frontier", starring Victor Mature, and "The Scalp Hunters", starring Burt Lancaster.Heston previously starred in "Will Penny", playing a basically similar character in the guise of a cowpoke nearing the end of his career, and again has a woman after him. However, the screenplay had more major plausibility problems and the ending was tragic rather than upbeat.

This movie rocks. Brian Keith and Charleston Heston doing what they do best. 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. She doesn't want to go back to her tribe, but the fighting will continue until she does. The last thing this woman is is weak. She kicks serious butt. None of this fake look-at-my-heinie-as-I-gyrate-Lucy-Liu fighting, but real fighting. She beats up men, gets knocked out, gets trampled by a horse, but there is no stopping her.Excellent action scenes. Eastwood and Wayne couldn't have done better. Redford certainly did much worse in his weak, pathetic caricature of the infamous Liver Eater Jeremiah Johnson. The real Johnson wouldn't have cried all the way like Redford did. He would have kicked butt like Heston and Keith.The movie pits man against man, man against animal, and occasionally woman against man. In all fight scenes, no one backs down. 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. He has a lot of them.If I ever get to be a trapper in 1860 Wyoming, I hope that I can find these guys.And if I get real lucky, maybe Cheston's babe has a sister.

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. The hunters then learn of a secret place with an unlimited amount of furs. This film has a pretty notorious history behind it as it was attacked when first released and continues to be attacked as being one of the worst films of the decade. Both Siskel and Ebert picked it as the worst film of 1980 and most movie books you read won't give this anything over a BOMB rating. I certainly agree that this is an incredibly bad film but I'd go as far to say it's one of the greatest bad movies ever made. The screenplay, written by Heston's son, is among the worst ever written as it's never clear what the film is trying to do or say. It seems like this would be a spoof of the genre because of all the stupid situations in it but sadly the film tries to play it straight and fails horribly. 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 entire film is very bad but at the same time it's never boring due to how bad it is. The film has plenty of unintentional laughs and in the end I had somewhat of a good time watching this but your entertainment level will certain depend on whether you can enjoy campy, bad films.

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. The action takes place in land occupied by warring Crow and Blackfoot Indians. When an enslaved Indian woman (Racimo) unsuccessfully tries to kill Heston and he brings her injured body back to his camp, a chain of events is kicked off that causes the deaths of dozens of people. Her captor, Blackfoot warrior Macht, wants his possession returned to him, more as a matter of pride than anything, and will stop at nothing to retrieve her. A variety of other characters turn up along the way including frontier newcomer Glover, old Indian friend Ackroyd and French Canadian trapper Cassel. Ultimately, Heston must go mano a mano with the ever-disgruntled Macht for the rights to Racimo. The rather cut-and-dried story is played out on a vast canvas of stunning Wyoming locations. The scenery is one of the chief attributes of the film. There is also a lovely score by Michel Legrand. Heston (along with many other people in the movie) has to contend with a horrendous fright wig - worse than his usual toupee! - a thick beard and a ton of heavy fur costuming. He gives a slightly more raucous portrayal than audiences may be used to but remains the granite-jawed, monument-like hero more often than not. Keith is wondrous. He completely abandons any and all refinement and sinks himself into his rough-and-tumble, foul-mouthed, earthy role. He and Heston share a significant amount of chemistry and the tale is almost more about their mutual affection than it is about the fight over Racimo. Surprisingly, for 1980, almost every Indian is portrayed by a white actor. Some are more successful than others. Jory and Ackroyd come across pretty authentically. Though he gives an intense portrayal, Macht brings all of the Native American sensibility, nuance and detail to his role as, say, a New York City writer moonlighting as a cab driver. He gives his role a far too contemporary and angst-ridden spin. Someone should have shown him Henry Brandon's work in "The Searchers" for inspiration. He also has an unintentionally amusing Snidley Whiplash moustache painted on his face for the bulk of the time. There's a raft of anachronistic-sounding vulgarity in the film, but it does aid in presenting the title characters as unsophisticated roughhousers. The violence is mostly very effective and gripping except for one really badly-handled beheading. Though fans of traditional (Randolph Scott?) westerns may balk at the film, it does offer some decent acting, action and cinematography. It also provides a vivid and rare glimpse into the world of the 19th century trappers. One quibble: Why do characters (often on foot!) keep running into each other in this expansive wilderness with the same frequency (or greater) than what would occur in Danville, Illinois??