r/Westerns • u/Academic_Win6060 • 5d ago

Help id a tv western

First time posting. Hope someone here can help identify a tv movie I saw in the 80's and it's stuck with me all these years.

Made-for-TV movie western, '60's -'70s maybe early 80s, American Western (Rockies/Sierras/foothills).

Solitary mountain man type character who regularly bathes in icy streams ā€” we see it at the beginning with a friend (possibly on a horse) onlooking nearby, commenting on the cold and cringing. I think the friend might be there to recruit him to join some quest which pulls him into the adventure of the movie.

Near the end there's a hand-to-hand fight between him and another man that ends up in an icy river, and his cold water habit saves him while the other guy is shocked by the cold water.

My memory keeps telling me that the actor might be Harrison Ford (but probably not ā€” checking his filmography didn't turn up a match, and he had switched to cinema after star wars). Maybe he's just built like Harrison...?

It's a pretty specific cold habit bathing setup for the fight scene near the end.

Since I'm thinking of Harrison, maybe that's because it's a similar name, like maybe Richard Harris...? But I'm pretty sure the man is bigger/thicker than skinny Harris though.

I know it's an old one to pinpoint. Maybe ask your dads? lol TIA šŸ™

4 Upvotes

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14 comments sorted by

3

u/RecessMonkeys 5d ago

Centennial (1978)? 12 episodes, Richard Chamberlain, Robert Conrad, and a galaxy of TV stars.

2

u/Academic_Win6060 5d ago

I'll check it out, thanks

1

u/Zellakate 5d ago

It doesn't quite match everything, but there's a river fight in The Mountain Men (1980) between Charlton Heston and Stephen Macht. Heston also joins up with old buddy Brian Keith toward the beginning of the film. Filmed in Wyoming.

2

u/Academic_Win6060 5d ago

I'll check it out. Thanks for the guess.

1

u/Zellakate 5d ago

You're welcome! I hope it helps.

3

u/jimbob_finkelman 5d ago

Sounds like something Iā€™d like to see.

2

u/Academic_Win6060 5d ago

Right? Me too (again) if I could just figure out the name

3

u/j3434 5d ago

Could it be Man in the Wilderness (1971), with Richard Harris?

2

u/Academic_Win6060 5d ago

I've seen that recently and it's definitely not it. Thanks for the guess

3

u/j3434 5d ago

Jeremiah Johnson?

1

u/762way 5d ago

This was my best guess too

2

u/Academic_Win6060 5d ago

Nope. Love that movie though

1

u/j3434 5d ago

The revenant

2

u/Academic_Win6060 5d ago

Wasn't the revenant based on man in the wilderness?

It's definitely not The Revenant.