4 Film Favorites: Charleton Heston (4FF)

This particular effort by Charlton Heston is certainly worth a look, at least once. In some ways, this film shows subtle hints of being just ever so slightly "campy" (in the way that many early 80's films can be), particularly during some of the initial opening sequences. However, overall, this film "is" entertaining, even if most of the major plot points are reasonably predictable. There are many, many reviews describing the basic story line, so I will refrain from simply rehashing what has already been clearly explained. In my opinion, Charlton Heston gives a tremendous performance, and is truly believed as his colorful character when watching this film, even today in current times. Kim Basinger is obviously very "green" with her acting skills in this movie, as it was one of her first, and it tends to show. For example, you will definitely not be seeing the Basinger performance which was offered in "Cellular" a handful of years back. However, she does turn in an adequate performance, and you do wish her character well. Nick Mancuso seems like he's trying just a little to hard to convince us much of the time, and it tends to come off as slightly less than genuine. But, once again, the performance of Heston makes up for these other quirks and weaknesses of the film. The amazing scenery, and filming techniques used, certainly add to the appeal of the movie. This definitely was a lower budget film, with a small cast, and a relatively simple and predictable plot by today's standard, so please set your expectations accordingly. This truly is a very watchable film, just be sure to place it in your mailbox for less than ten dollars, if you can. One or two viewings may be enough for many people.Now, . . . regarding this particular DVD release. The widescreen format picture quality is very strong for a modest budget project from nearly 30 years ago. The contrast is great, the colors are strong, and the clarity is definitely "good" (not spectacular). However, the soundtrack for the film is lackluster at best. The tones and sound effects which are more toward the "loud" range sound "okay". But, the more intricate conversational dialogue is notably under amplified, and I often found myself "maxing" out the volume range (simultaneously) on both the television speakers and separate surround sound system. Altering the sound settings didn't seem to help in any significant way. Be prepared to keep your audio remote in hand and ready to go!!!GOOD LUCK.

I first saw this movie in the theater as a boy with my father. It's stuck with me ever since and remains on the list of my top ten favorite films. Fortunately I was able to pick up an old VHS copy several years ago. I'm excited to finally see it coming out on DVD!!!Remote Mountains, Eerie Mines, Mysterious Bagpipe Music Drifting through the Misty Woods, Rapelling into Bottomless Mine Shafts, Crashing Float Planes into Frigid Lakes, Gold!,... What more can you ask for in an adventure film? I never tire of watching this film. It is very UNIQUE! Much of the movie appears to be filmed in actual mine shafts. It is dark, eerie, and mysterious.(Note: After watching the documentary on the new DVD it sounds like all of the mine shafts were actually sets. Wow! Those were some realistic sets!)General Plot (Warning some spoilers!):The film begins with a man being pulled by the ankles from rubble inside a mine shaft by another man. You think he is being rescued. Instead the rescuer lifts a pick axe and finishes the man off. We then move to Nick Mancuso's character dramatically quiting his job as a pilot for a large mining company. You find out as he visits the home of Kim Basinger's character that their friend has disappeared somewhere in the remote mountains of British Columbia and Nick thinks he knows why... he's found Gold! Nick and Kim are then off to search for their missing friend in a rickety, old float plane. After a nearly fatal crash landing on the Stikine River, they finally arrive at a remote, mountain lake that Nick believes would be the destination of their friend. Following mysterious bagpipe music into the woods they come upon a cabin hidden deep in the dark woods and encounter Charlton Heston's character. Charlton introduces them to his "diggings", a creepy mine shaft dug into the side of the mountain near his cabin. Nick immediately suspects that Charlton has something to do with their friend's disappearance and it's likely got something to do with Gold! The race is on to find this Gold and get out alive.I LOVE this film! I highly recommend this film to those who are looking for something out of the ordinary. It would be particularly interesting to those interested in mining, the mountains of British Columbia, Charlton Heston, Kim Basinger, or adventure mysteries!

As a huge fan of Charlton Heston I was pleased to discover finally this little known film, one of only three he directed - but I must admit that it is not a very good one. It is a honest movie, with some pretty good moments, but nothing more.The whole story happens somewhere in North Canada wilderness. A pilot named Jean Dupre (Nick Mancuso), worried by the disappearance of his friend George Patterson who was making surveys in a remote area, buys an old DHC-2 Beaver floatplane and starts to search for him. Patterson's girlfriend, Andrea (Kim Basinger) will accompany him. When looking for Patterson's plane, the couple meets first an old hunter/fisherman, Elijah who lives with his family in the wilderness - and later a hermit/miner, Silas McGee (Charlton Heston), very friendly but probably just a little teensy weensy bit crazy... Dupre actually wants to combine the search with some prospecting for gold and this will ultimately put him and Andrea in lots of trouble... I will say no more about what follows...There are some good things in this film. The wilderness is very beautiful and all the mine crawling is very, very well done - and pretty creepy too... Charlton Heston (who also directed this film) clearly enjoyed a quite unusual role of an aging hermit dispensing wisdom with a strong Scottish accent, calling Kim Basinger "lass" every two minutes or so. Kim Basinger is incredibly beautiful in this film with her long golden hair being, at least in my opinion, the real "mother lode" of the movie... And then, there is Elijah (John Marley) who is simply irresistible as probably the wisest and best spoken old timer I saw on the screen for a long time.However, the scenario is not very good. Jean Dupre character is kind of a jerk, with whom I couldn't identify at all. There was supposed to be some "guilty" chemistry between him and Andrea (who after all is his best friend's girlfriend...) but I couldn't detect any. And the ending is rather unsatisfying.But still, I don't regret that I watched it. Charlton Heston's talent and Kim Basinger incredible beauty, combined with some claustrophobic and creepy mine exploring, are still well worth the price of purchase.

Like Charlton Heston's other, much more ambitious directorial effort Antony & Cleopatra [DVD] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC], Mother Lode has long been pretty much impossible to find: initially only available panned and scanned on a Swedish and a Spanish DVD, which isn't the ideal way to see a Scope film by any means, it's finally been released by Warner Home Video in a decent 2.35:1 widescreen transfer in the US, even including a half hour interview with writer/producer Fraser Heston. It also includes English subtitles, which are particularly useful deciphering some of the poor dialogue recording and Heston Sr.'s allegedly Scottish accent.The film itself is a resolutely old-fashioned adventure/mystery as Nick Mancuso and Kim Basinger go in search of a friend who's gone missing while on the trail of the undiscovered source of some 19th century gold rush claims but while it gets bogged down in too much crawling in dimly-lit tunnels it's a lot more entertaining than anything with Chucky playing axe-wielding psychotic gold-digging Scottish twins has any right to be. It also has some great aerial photography that's particularly spectacular in widescreen, and if the plane crash looks impressively dangerous, that's because it wasn't in the script - it really did crash spectacularly on landing. Barely released outside the USA back in 1982 and Heston's last leading role in a feature until his role as Josef Mengale in the equally obscure Rua Alguem 5555: My Father 21 years later, it may be a fairly minor semi-swansong that doesn't stand up well to a second viewing, but as an undemanding, decently-crafted bit of old fashioned filmmaking there's still something reassuringly comforting about it.

The Omega Man was a classic, Soylent Green doubly so, those two alone are well worth the pack price but the real bonus is Motherlode.No where as easy to get a hold of as the others this is a cracking adventure, come slasher movie.Heston plays a crazy old prospector out in the wilderness who will do anything to keep his gold mine a secret, including murder.Enter two young adventurers who are about to find out you shouldn't mess with a man's claim the hard way.Excellent locations and a creepy atmosphere add to the enjoyment of this forgotten near classic.The fourth movie is Skyjacked, I could take it or leave it.

don't know why one of the disks did not work but it was only cheap to buy so I did not send it back.The other two was ok,

good product but it's only for dvd players with American zone usage,,, never saw that when i ordered..