Saturday, January 31, 2009

Mother Lode

A classic movie to look for is "Search for the Mother Lode: The Last Great Treasure," in which Charleton Heston gets to play two brothers, one of which is a crazed and crazy gold prospector.

At first, the movie is above ground with great scenery from British Columbia - although I think they are supposed to be in Alaska, if I remember right. They talk of placer gold and placer claims, pronouncing it "play - sir" - maybe that's a Canadian pronunciation, but it’s one I’ve never heard in any gold fields! Later, the movie and action ends up underground, where every thing is dark and dangerous, and where Charleton Heston gets to pronounce the most famous lines of the movie in a rasping Irish accent, “Mr. Dupree.... Stay the hell out of me mine, laddie.”

The movie seemed hilarious when watched with a semi-drunken bunch of thermally altered exploration geologists, partly because the geology or words just didn’t seem quite right. I haven’t watched this movie since about 1982, which is the year it was released, and wouldn't mind seeing it again. Unfortunately, the movie is only available on VHS, though I've heard reports that you can buy a Swedish DVD version. If you buy a new VHS version, it's considered a collector's item, and the price is from $45 to $150 plus. The movie has developed what seems to be a kind of cult following, although it was panned by critics (and geologists!) when it first came out.

7 comments:

Bryan said...

Maybe one day some movie exec will green light a good geology movie...

Come to think of it, Dante's Peak was almost alright (except for the acid lake burning grandma thing).

Then again, I haven't seen that movie in years, I may have blocked out things.

Silver Fox said...

Go to Eruptions to vote for your favorite volcano movie!

Daniel said...

It IS available on DVD. At least in Sweden. The swedish title is "Hett Guld" (Hot gold), but it is the same movie with mr Heston.

Proof: http://www.discshop.se/shop/ds_produkt.php?lang=&id=37998&lang=se&subsite=movies&&ref=

It must be possible to find in the USA?

Silver Fox said...

Terra, earlier I had a link to a place to buy it in Sweden - an English version with Swedish subtitles, but it was a dead link, so I couldn't pursue the issue.

Unfortunately, as far as all the searching I have done so far, there is no English DVD version available here.

Is the DVD you linked to in Swedish? I didn't see an English version of their webpage, so can't read the details.

Daniel said...

"Is the DVD you linked to in Swedish?"

Hmm, Im not sure what you mean by that? Its the original movie, the only thing Swedish is the cover. Its region 2 DVD as well (european region). Most likely PAL and by the information I get that its also not anamorphic, but a crappy full screen-release.

But we dont dub the movie to Swedish or anything like that if thats what you mean. In Sweden dubbing movies is a capital offence basically. :D We use only subtitles.

Daniel said...

Optional subtitles that is.

Silver Fox said...

I probably can't play a region 2 dvd without a bit of hacking, so I might have to wait until the North American version comes out, wheEVer.

Thanks for the info, though!