Os Homens da Montanha

What sustains my memory of this movie most is Brian Keith's explanation of why he's never lost in the wilderness... 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. Along the way they face numerous challenges to their morality... (the usual river fordings, mountainous pass traversing, Indian raid sorts of things).

One technical note: this movie contains one of the first weapon's eye viewpoints I recall ... seeing the forest and targets from the head of an Indian spear.

The Indians... 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... It makes me laugh, without fail, and leaves me feeling better for seeing it.

I bought this movie for $5 before I even seen it...I like westerns so it wasn't that big of a risk for me. Although this movie has a few lame parts here and there, it is a quite entertaining story about furtrapping, friendship, and even a little romance. 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. He is a rough and tough "Injun" fighter who loves whiskey and cuss words. He provides some comic relief and is the most memorable character in the movie. Heston does an okay job as well. My favorite line in the movie is after the Crow Indian says "You give us gifts and we go in peace." and Frapp says "You can go in dog s***!"

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 two stars work extremely well together, and Keith especially seems to be having the time of his life. He played a similar role in a very good TV movie of the same period, "The Quest," but here he is given the opportunity to run with it, and he does a grand job. At first Heston looks somewhat stiff and uncomfortable in his mountain man getup--mainly varying types of animal pelts, with a huge Davey Crockett-type fur cap--but before long he seems right at home. 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. Heston seems to be enjoying himself, the scenery is absolutely gorgeous, and this is one of the most enjoyable, and better-made, westerns to come out of the early '80s. Recommended.

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??

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.