Mother Lode (1982)
A couple of youngish adventurers go into the wilderness of British Columbia in search of a lost colleague. Their plane crashes and they find themselves at the mercy of a crazed old Scottish miner, who has lived in isolation for many decades searching the mountain caves for a chamber of long lost gold. He is prepared to do anything - including murder - to keep his gold for himself.
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Perfect cast and a good story
Good story, Not enough for a whole film
The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.
Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable
Before there was Bigfoot, there was ogre-like Silas McGee, and his shadowy twin Ian, to provide virtually unfindable scary primates in the nearly uninhabited BC outback. The opening scene, involving a murder, by pick ax in a narrow mining tunnel, gives us a glimpse of how much of the film will play out. From Silas's later conversation, we can assume that the murderer was Ian and that the victim was the mysteriously missing George, mining company bush pilot boyfriend/husband? of Andrea(Kim Basinger).The McGee brothers remind me of nothing so much as Ted Kaczynski: the Unibomber, who somehow eked out an existence in the wilds of Idaho as a hermit, while making bombs to explode upon reception in the mail. Like Kaczynski, the McGees were murderous psychopaths, but also had an obsession with finding the underground source of gold occasionally found in nearby rivers. The McGee's claimed silver veins were apparently a sham. However, their tortuous and deep mine tunnels served as a perfect place to dispose of bodies, as long as no outsider entered the relevant tunnel regions. So, where did they get their funds to sustain their existence and mining activities for the past 30 years?? The film doesn't go into this, but the reviewer must assume that either they were finding a bit of gold, or they scavenged what they could(like planes) from the occasional murdered curiosity seekers. Although not usually classed as a film noir,to me, this is a rather extreme form of this genre. After the first part of the film takes us flying around the spectacular sunny backcountry of BC, and we enter the McGee's cabin, the action mostly takes place in the dimly-lit cabin or narrow mine tunnels and shafts, mirky underwaters, or in the often misty or dark nearby forest. For a claustrophobe and aquaphobe like me, I often felt uncomfortable.Jean Dupre(Nick Mancuso)is a devil-may-care adrenaline junkie, doing stunt pilot flying tricks while on a business run for the Mollyco mining company, often flying just above the surface, like a crop duster, and returning to explore the McGee's tunnel system, after he was told to stay out or else. He recklessly jumps out of the company plane he has just landed, leaving it to taxi in front of a plane trying to take off, with a passenger still inside. He must have more than 9 lives, as he should have died that many times in the film. ...Kim Basinger, as George's wife/girlfriend?, Andrea, becomes his partner in their adventure to try to find George, while looking for gold. She is mostly a passive partner, serving mainly to add eye candy and someone for Dupre to rescue from the McGees.... John Marley, as outback fisherman Elijah, has a small, but very essential role, acting as the young couple's saviour when their plane's engine quits, and when they need a quick way home after eliminating the McGee menace.According to producer Fraser Heston's DVD documentary, the crash landing of the float plane on the lake we see was unplanned, but provided a perfect excuse for Dupre and Andrea to go scouting around the wilderness for someone to help them get home... The mine tunnel system was all fake, although very well done. Care was taken to make its essential features realistic, based primarily on Fraser's experiences in exploring old mines in the Death Valley region.
Decent wilderness adventure with the legendary Charlton Heston directing himself in a tale of two young people, Jean (Nick Mancuso) and Andrea (Kim Basinger) flying to Northern British Columbia. They do it ostensibly to look for a colleague / friend who'd come there and disappeared, but the lure of a potential windfall in gold proves too strong to resist. Unfortunately for them, already residing in the area is grizzled old Scottish miner Silas McGee (Heston), who's not as friendly as he initially seems to be. Heston, directing from a screenplay by his son Fraser (Fraser was also the producer), does a capable job of drawing us into this story with good acting and well orchestrated thrills; the second unit direction was the work of Joe Canutt, son of another legend, Yakima Canutt, so there are two second generation filmmakers filling out important roles here. The film is well shot (by Richard Leiterman) in claustrophobic settings and paced well. Mainly, it's worth seeing for Heston's fine performance (there's a major twist regarding his character, but you won't hear it from me) as he completely immerses himself in the character and does a good job with the accent to boot. Basinger looks great as usual and she and Mancuso are both quite capable. John Marley is Elijha, the forest dweller who lends some much needed assistance and he's just a delight. This is quite well made technically, with some breathtaking aerial photography and lots of gorgeous rural scenery. Ken Wannbergs' music likewise adds to the overall enjoyment. It's too bad that this little film is not that well known nowadays, but it is on DVD now so more people can discover it for themselves. Not that it's anything truly *great*, necessarily, but it's tense and gripping stuff and entertaining all the way. Seven out of 10.
A great movie, my wife and I's favorite since we first saw it in 1982. We liked the name and the character Ian MacGee so much that we named our first son Ian, who is now 19. Of course, I am of Scottish decent, so I loved the character's accent, and the bagpipes. This movie could have easily have had a sequel, such as going back for the gold through a mountain crevasse. One of Mr Heston's finest performances. My first introduction to Kim Bassinger, and she remains as my favorite blonde bombshell actress. We are also biting at the bit to get it on DVD. Hey, Mr. Heston, if you ever read this, please get this movie on a DVD, it will sell like crazy!!! Love it, love it, love it.
Dull, dingy and irritating. An incredibly weak script is at the root of this films problems. It really seemed to drag on interminably as various characters pursue each other through barely visible scenes up and down mine shafts. Some nice scenery, shame about the film.