Jeremiah Johnson

Sydney Pollack's return to the western four years after THE SCALPHUNTERS was to be a completely different experience. Following the trials and tribulations of a deserter of the Mexican War who disappears in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado to become a mountain man, JEREMIAH JOHNSON eschews the conventions of the western as a genre in such a way as was only made possible for American cinema in the tumultuous era of early 70's with such visceral movies of frontier survival as MAN IN THE WILDERNESS and A MAN CALLED HORSE paving the way.

As Jeremiah Johnson (Robert Redford) wanders the mountains like a fugitive stricken by disaster, a solitary figure against awe-inspiring backdrops of massive rock formations, steep ravines and expansive mesas, you can tangibly feel the film, like the hero, transcending the specific time and place and breaching out vision to become an all-encompassing spiritual journey where the individual characters - fur trappers, bear hunters or Indians - are merely the unwitting parners in a dance of death.

Some viewers may be put off by the lack of straight-forward plot, the episodic, repetitive nature of the movie or the long stretches of silence, but it's from those exact things the movie takes its power. JJ comes unto its own in those small moments of quietude, in Johnson's silent encounters with indians, in the barren, unforgiving wastes of the craggy mountains that reflect so well the psychology of characters wandering in their shadow, in the subtle, heartwarming interactions Johnson has with the Indian woman he's taken for a wife and the mute boy he's taken for a son. There's hardly a word uttered between this peculiar family the entire movie but the ways they learn to overcome the barriers that separate them is a touching sight to behold.

There is some dated montage, a corny soundtrack; how much of this will affect your enjoyment will boil down to your affinity with how cinema was in the 70's. Still, what is left is this beautiful parable of broken humans learning to be whole again. Equal parts visceral, savage and heartwarming.

Jeremiah Johnson is the third of a troika of films about the mountain man experience, Clark Gable's Across The Wide Missouri and Charlton Heston's The Mountain Men being the other two. One of these days there will be a good biographical film of Kit Carson, the greatest of the lot.

Robert Redford in the title role gets in on the last years of the mountain man experience. These guys trapped for the fur pelts living months and sometimes running into years before they came down to sell their goods. They lived alone among the Indians, hostile or not, and being that repeating rifles had not yet been invented the Indians had numerical and firepower advantage over them. They had to be one hardy breed of men as Redford and the others show.

Initially Redford lucks out winning the respect of the Indians when he avenges a crazy woman's massacre of her family. The Indians hold the insane in respect even though Redford kills several Indians doing it. They even give him an Indian bride in Delle Bolton.

His luck runs out when he reluctantly guides a party of soldiers through an Indian burial ground. After that they don't let up in trying to kill him and his loved ones.

Being the noted conservationist that he is I'm sure Robert Redford loved shooting in the national parks which are preserved as they were in the time of Kit Carson, Jim Bridger and the rest. Some beautiful cinematography is another hallmark of Jeremiah Johnson.

One of Robert Redford's best and most interesting characters he's brought to the big screen, this Jeremiah Johnson.

A film which is glibly categorized as a `western' but goes somewhat deeper than that. The Pollack/Redford combination works well, and the photography of those magnificent mountains of Utah is spectacular. With all that beautiful scenery in Montana, Nevada, Colorado, Utah, I am surprised that the US government never does very much for saving it and cleaning up all that contamination ……..

Thirty years on and after several viewings, I find this story grows on you, like the aging of fine wine in oak casks, such that another recent viewing gave me as much – if not more – pleasure. Precisely because it is not the standard `western' formula. One gets a little tired of John Wayne getting saddle-sore, killing indians and wooing women; at times watching `Jeremiah Johnson' I cannot help comparing a little with `Dances with Wolves' (qv), not because of any story similarity but more from certain situations being played out.

Robert Redford has given us numerous films in which his characterization is pretty good in general, but in this film I rather fancy he was inspired, even to the point of throwing off that silly category so beloved of those suffering Hollywooditis. Most notable in `The Sting' (qv), `All the President's Men', `Out of Africa', and `A River Runs Through it', without forgetting his excellent directing of `Ordinary People', one of the best true-life dramas I have seen.

`Jeremiah Johnson' is now one of the classics of the genre and even of cinema as a whole: always worth another viewing.

Text: This story is about mankind. When you look out over the rivers, the hills, and the far horizon with a profound sense of your own littleness in the vast scheme of things, and yet have faith, hope, and courage - which is the root of every virtue. When you know that down in your heart every person is as noble, as vile, as divine, as diabolic, and as lonely as their own self, and seeks to know, to forgive, and to love your fellow humans.

When you know how to sympathize with people in their sorrows, yea, even in their sins - knowing that each person fights a hard fight against many odds. When you have learned how to make friends and to keep them, and above all how to keep friends with yourself. When you love flowers, can hunt the birds without a gun, and feel the thrill of an old forgotten joy, when you hear the laugh of a little child.

When you can be happy and high-minded amid the meaner drudgeries of life. When star-crowned trees, and the glint of sunlight on flowing waters, subdue you like the thought of one much loved and long dead; when no voice of distress reaches your ears in vain, and no hand seeks your aid without response.

When you find good in every faith that helps any man to lay hold of divine things and sees majestic meanings in life, whatever the name of that faith may be. When you look into a wayside puddle and see something beyond mud, and into the face of the most forlorn mortal and see something beyond sin.

When you know how to pray, how to love, how hope. When you have kept faith with yourself, with your fellow man, with your God; in your hand a sword for evil, in your heart a bit of a song - glad to live, but not afraid to die! Such a person has found the only real secret of life, and the one filmmakers continue to try to give to all the world.

Thank you kindly. I remember from allegories, conferrals, and degrees of work among actors, crews, and more importantly, writers!

Summary: What you do for yourself alone will die with you, what you do for others and the world will remain and be immortal. When warranted because of quality of story and significance of filmmakers and actors, I recall memories of beautiful stories portrayed on stage with trusted people to my side helping everyone equally as best they could. Jeremiah Johnson is a stand out film in my opinion only expressed here hopefully among trusted film lovers. Needed now more than ever before. 1 / 6 / 2021. *I am still alive after Covid-ruptured gallbladder 08-18-2022. SMIB.

This extraordinary Western results to be a slice of life about a hermit man and a hostile environment .The picture narrates the odyssey of an adventurer that one time dreary of civilization goes to Rocky Mountains becoming into mountain man , a young who is part of the wildlife of the landscape.He early develops his senses from his first feeble and failed attempts at survival to an expert hunter who shoots efficiently his preys and turning into an exciting new myth , the great Jeremiah Johnson . When he trespasses holy land is continuously pursued by Indians and vice versa, because he seeks vengeance , going on a relentless chase. Meanwhile the Indians attack his farm. Crow Indians set out to track down the mountain man on savage raids until an inconclusive final .

Solid western with interesting events , violent fights , emotions , thrills and spectacular outdoors . From the initiation until the final are proceeded continuous battles against nature and a survival fighting versus wintry wilderness , enemy trappers and savage Indians, among others . The story is a crossover of various films, the battle against nature of ¨Man of a wilderness land¨ and Indians as ¨ Man called horse ¨ and the obstinacy and stubbornness of relentless enemies who fight with no rest such as ¨The duelists¨. The magnificent cast is starred by an excellent Robert Redford , a simple man who has no taste for cities and becomes a tough and two fisted mountain man obsessed a bloody revenge . Supporting cast is featured by various actors in brief performances as Jack Colvin , Matt Clark , Charles Tyner and special mention to Will Geer as feisty old trapper . Splendid cinematography in Panavision and glimmer Technicolor by Duke Callagham as is reflected on spectacular outdoors filmed in sighting, rousing natural parks from Rocky Mountains. Lively and evocative musical score by usual secondary actor John Rubinstein and beautiful songs by also actor Tim McIntire . The motion picture is stunningly directed by the recently deceased Sidney Pollack (Yazuka, Three days of the condor, Way we were, Out of Africa). Rating : Better than average . This outstanding film will appeal to Robert Redford fans and landscape lovers .