Mother Lode (1982)

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Best movie of this year hands down!

A Major Disappointment

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

MOTHER LODE is an all but forgotten tale of survival in the wilderness and the hunt for a golden treasure. I'd never heard of it before I saw it was on TV so I thought I'd give it a go; I quite like Charlton Heston when he's at his most bombastic so I thought I'd see what he was like here.The good news is that Heston is the best thing in the film and his larger than life portrayal of a mountain man is hugely entertaining. It's a shame that the rest of the film can't match, really, as MOTHER LODE is saddled with a slow-moving plot and some rather unlikeable protagonists. Nick Mancuso and Kim Basinger play characters who seem self-centred and indeed rather selfish and I couldn't warm to them despite their various misadventures. Basinger's screaming soon becomes annoying, too.What MOTHER LODE does have going for it is some stunning outdoor location photography of the British Columbian wilds. A lot of the aerial shots are simply breathtaking and truly bring to life this rather neglected part of the world (at least neglected when it comes to cinema). It's certainly an amiable enough watch overall, containing a little of that early '80s spirit of adventure that infused the likes of RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, although this is much darker and more realistic, and not as entertaining. But it'll do.

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.

I'm particularly a fan of the Pacific Northwest, including the Yukon and British Columbia territories of Canada, and also a fan of old airplanes and bush pilots, so maybe I would have liked this movie even if it didn't have a good plot or acting. However, I think the plot and acting are good as well!

I rented this movie on video in 1984. It instantly captivated me that I wanted to watch it again, but on returning to the store to rent it I found that they had sold it on. I remember this movie as a classic, the title didn't do enough to sell the film which in my opinion should have been listed with the best sellers. The first class acting of Charlton Heston made this one of the few movies on my, to see again list. To those who have not yet seen it, It's a must.