Maybe not coincidentally, it has no dialogue. There is one scene вЂ“ a chase sequence featuring rapids and a waterfall вЂ“ which is very well shot and quite thrilling. The two main Indian characters, played by Stephen Macht and Victoria Racimo, are particular offenders, and would probably not have been any more convincing (under the same director) had their dialogue been any better. Heston and Brian Keith, who plays a fellow trapper, are hammy as hell, which is at least somewhat entertaining the same cannot be said of the supporting cast. The director is probably partly to blame for this as well beyond some pretty landscape photography, particularly at the beginning of the film, the direction by Richard Lang is unspectacular, and fails to elicit believable performances from his cast. Whenever it tries, dialogue that is supposed to sound portentous and meaningful comes across as an amateurish imitation, with none of the actors possessing or willing to lend their performances the gravitas necessary to support those overwrought lines. The script never manages to tie the plot elements I mentioned above into a coherent, resonating whole. And that is probably the only reason it was made into a movie, because it is absolutely terrible. One might also like to find a commentary on sustainability (or a lack thereof): the effect the trade of furs has on the animal populations (and, for that matter, the humans who do the hunting and trading, both white and вЂњredвЂќ).Д«ut there is a problem: The screenplay was written by Fraser Clarke Heston, Charlton HestonвЂ™s son.

ThereвЂ™s a lot of potential here, pitting the вЂњmountain manвЂќ who is about to become obsolete once the Oregon Trail becomes fully established against the Native American who is about to be driven off his land and onto a reservation not to mention the treatment of women by both men (and groups) in the untamed wilderness of the time.

If this sounds like an interesting premise for a revisionist western, it is. Not because he loves her, but because of what she represents: she is his property, and a white man has stolen it, just like the white men have stolen from Native Americans for decades. He accidentally liberates a squaw from her abusive husband Heavy Eagle, who swears to hunt HestonвЂ™s character down and get his wife back. In this mountain western, Charlton Heston plays aging trapper Bill Tyler on the hunt for beaver pelts in what is now Wyoming and Idaho.

Watch the mountain men 1980