DVD Reviews

Mother Lode – DVD Review

By Jeff Swindoll Mar 30, 2011, 15:32 GMT

It\'s Silas McGee\'s gold. He just hasn\'t found it yet, although he\'s searched for his mother lode for more than 30 years in the remote high country of British Columbia. Strangers with a similar bent for gold had best stay away: folks like that may never come out of McGee\'s mine alive. Charlton Heston directs from a script by Fraser Heston and plays the double roles of mad recluse Silas ...more

“Stay the hell out of my mine laddie!”

I dub this “Chuck amok” week as the square-jawed actor is highly featured in a mother lode of releases.  This one is one of his rare directorial ventures, his last in fact, and is presented for the first time in widescreen. 

Jean Dupre (Nick Mancuso) is on his own after spectacularly quitting his job flying planes for a mining company.  He decides to discover what happened to his missing friend, who he speculates has gone in search for a mother lode vein of gold fabled to be on an isolated mountain.  The area was site to a rush decades ago and it has been speculated that the source of that lode is up in the mountain. 

Dupre and Andrea Spalding (Kim Basinger), the missing man’s wife, set off in a float plane. Along the way they meet a wily fisherman named Elijah (John Marley) who tells them that many go in the direction they’re heading but none return.  The find the isolated lake and attempt a water landing, crashing spectacularly sinking their aircraft. 

The waterlogged couple finds a cabin that is home to Silas McGee (Charlton Heston), a hermitlike miner who claims to only be interested in a silver streak.  However, the couple discovers that Silas has many secrets and he may be willing to kill to keep them that way. 

Thar’s gold in them thar hills.  Fraser Heston discovered the life of the solitary miner was still an ongoing lifestyle, not having died out with the California Gold Rush, when doing research for his screenplay of The Mountain Men (1980) and decided that it would make a good movie theme all its own. 

It’s not as popular as it was in those days when everyone was panning in California but it’s still happening in modern times and even has a reality show devoted to a group prospecting in Alaska. 

I doubt that Mother Lode will go down as the definitive mining film, but it is a fun ride and features some gorgeous scenery and solid performances.  What is the most thrilling is a seaplane crash that turns out to be the real deal.  Seems the stunt went wrong and the landing went wrong. 

Second unit director Joe Canutt, son of legendary stuntman Yakima Canutt, had three cameras running when the plane flipped.  Happily on one was hurt but Canutt phoned up screenwriter Fraser Heston to tell him that he had some fantastic footage, so the plane crash was incorporated into the story.  So that harrowing footage you witness is the real plane floundering. 

Charlton Heston seems to be having a helluva time with his role as the cantankerous prospector who sports a sooty beard reminiscent of Moses but with a Scottish brogue.  Mancuso is our harried hero and Kim Basinger, in her second film, is our heroine.  However, we keep gravitating back to Heston.  It’s a fun film for his fans and it’s great to finally have it on DVD in widescreen. 

Mother Lode is presented in widescreen (2.35:1) and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions.  The only special feature is a 30 minute interview with Fraser Heston about the production and his famous father. 

Mother Lode marks the last time that Charlton Heston stepped behind the camera, but it’s his deliciously over-the-top prospector that makes the film a treat.  His son Fraser also contributes a great interview about the behind-the-scenes of the film.  Well worth your bag of gold dust.

Visit the DVD database for more information.