Product Details

• Actors: Charlton Heston, Brian Keith, Victoria Racimo, Stephen Macht, Seymour Cassel
• Directors: Richard Lang
• Writers: Fraser Clarke Heston
• Producers: Andrew Scheinman, Cathleen Summers, Martin Shafer, Richard R. St. Johns
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dubbed, DVD, Full Screen, Subtitled, NTSC
• Language: English
• Subtitles: Chinese, English, French, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish
• Region: Region 1 encoding (US and Canada only)
  PLEASE NOTE: Some Region 1 DVDs may contain Regional Coding Enhancement (RCE). Some, but not all, of our international customers have had problems playing these enhanced discs on what are called "region-free" DVD players. For more information on RCE, click here.
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
• DVD Release Date: June 18, 2002
• Run Time: 102 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (65 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00006672R
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,052 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "The Mountain Men" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Bill Tyler and Henry Frapp lead a rugged life as fur trappers in the Rocky Mountains amongst hostile Indian tribes and must decide whether to help a chief's runaway squaw.
Genre: Westerns
Rating: NR
Release Date: 31-AUG-2004
Media Type: DVD

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

93 of 95 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "Sit down, flatlander.", March 7, 2004

By 

D. Mikels "It's always Happy Hour here" (Skunk Holler) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mountain Men [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Hawken muzzle loaders. Plugs of chewing tobacco the size of your fist. Buffalo robes. Beaver pelts. Jugs of whiskey.

But enough about last night's party.

Director Richard Lang's THE MOUNTAIN MEN is a rough-and-tumble yarn depicting the fur trapping industry's final days in the pristine splendor of the northern Rockies. Even in such a remote region, the demand back East for top hats made of beaver skin resulted in the virtual extinction of the buck-toothed rodents in their mountain habitats; on top of that, silk hats were rapidly becoming the fashion craze, creating even more of a hardship on the gritty mountain men who trapped along countless streams and rivers, searching for what remained of the elusive beaver population.

It was a hard life, predicated on an individual's ability to survive in a harsh environment based on his wits and his bare hands. Interaction with other people was rare--the need to get along with neighboring Indian tribes a must. And infrequently, perhaps once every two or three years, the trappers would unite at a "rendezvous" to trade their pelts for cash and let off a little steam. To say that such a gathering was rowdy and violent is kind of like saying turtles have shells.

Charlton Heston "shines" (a little mountain man lingo, there) as fur trapper Bill Tyler, a quiet man who only wishes to be left alone so he can find that last valley just teeming with beaver. But there's a problem: while fighting off a band of Blackfoot bent on stealing his horses and supplies he attracts the company of a young squaw (Victoria Racimo) who happens to be married to a chief with a very serious attitude (Stephen Macht). Thus Tyler and his new companion are forced to run, and run, and run some more to escape the warrior's wrath.

While Heston is solid in his role, Brian Keith absolutely steals the show as crusty Henry Frapp. Henry, a friend of Tyler's, is a cantankerous, foul-mouthed, fun-loving old coot who vividly breathes life into the mountain man persona. Keith dominates every scene he's in, and he's fun to watch.

Heck, THE MOUNTAIN MEN is fun to watch. The screenplay, incidentally, was written by Heston's son, Fraser, who obviously did his homework concerning this fascinating aspect of the Old West. Grab a plug of tobacco and enjoy.
--D. Mikels

49 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Shining Times, November 9, 2004

By 

OAKSHAMAN "oakshaman" (Algoma, WI United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Mountain Men (DVD)

I've always felt that this was an underrated film. In my opinion it ranks as one of the best of the mountain man/Native American genre. It is also as good a film as Charlton Heston was ever a part of.

What's so good about it? Well, first of all it has no glaring historical inaccuracies- those always drive me nuts. The costumes and props are as accurate as I've seen. The scenery is absolutely magnificent and you feel like you are there- it always reminds me of my own times in the Central Rockies. As for the acting, well, you actually start caring about the characters, and thats a pretty good sign of good acting in my book. The dialog is also among the most consistently humorous and clever that I've heard- there's nothing phoney or forced about it. Heston and Keith play off of each other perfectly. Not least of all, the Indian peoples are treated with the dignity and complexity that they deserve- no stereotypes here.

I don't buy every DVD that comes along, but I had to have this one for my personal collection. It just makes me feel good to watch it when the modern world starts to get me down....

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Full Screen? What studio genius thought that up?, August 2, 2005

By 

Terry Cooper (United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Mountain Men (DVD)

A wonderful outdoor epic stuffed into a 1.33:1 format? What idiot from Columbia came up with that suggestion? This is a movie that NEEDS widescreen! It didn't do well at the box office because it was sold to the public as a zany comedy, which it is not. An accurate picture of the latter days of the fur trade with more than its share of delightful one-liners and action. Brian Keith shows how scene stealing should be done. This is a guys movie. Would have been 4 stars in widescreen, Columbia!