Disillusioned by the horrors of war, a US soldier attempts to live alone in the mountains in this unusual western starring Robert Redford. The film is based on the true story of an 1840s fur trapper, however, the basic narrative has more in common with the 'dropping out of society' movies of circa 1970 with Redford rejecting the rules of the society that has raised him, only to have to contend with other (Amerindian) rules. Perhaps most pointedly though, Redford finds himself eventually saddled with all the accoutrements of society that he has tried to avoid, inadvertently making friends, given a surrogate son (after the boy's family is killed) and an Amerindian bride for a wife. One of the film's best aspects is how Redford gradually progresses from being resentful of the son and wife to actually caring deeply enough about them to take action at a pivotal point. Intelligent as all this might sound, 'Jeremiah Johnson' is certainly not a film for all tastes. It is very deliberately, almost lethargically paced and Redford's journeys are accompanied by a series of superfluous sentimental songs. The film also never really probes into Redford's past and all the reasons that culminated in his drop out of society. It is, however, his journey (rather than his motivation) that drives the film. He might look and sound the same by the end of the film, but he is indelibly changed. No matter how one dissects it, it is hard to deny that the film has a potent message to offer about the difficulty of actually avoiding society and the company of others altogether. The scenery is great too.

I never include much of a plot synopses in my reviews, only that which is necessary to underscore whatever calls for a bit of back story, as that information can be found elsewhere. Instead, I concentrate on the all around artistic merit of a film and the quality of its production. In Jeremiah Johnson, I'll make a bit of an exception since it's essentially a true story, and there is so much going on that one would do well to watch it at least twice to catch all the nuances at play. Based on an amalgamation of real life people including a character named "Liver Eatin' Johnson", who ate the livers of his adversaries in keeping with THEIR customs, I will say that essentially the movie tells the story of a white man who drops from society to escape it's politics and finds himself at war with native peoples of the lands wherein he ends up. His family killed by these native peoples for having broken a sacred custom, the real Johnson, confused, scared, mad and alone goes on a vengeful spree. So worthy of an adversary was he and so fierce was his revenge, eventually it was the wily and land-savvy indigenous peoples who sought him out for a truce. This was more or less the way of it. Now on to the technicalities of the film. Pollack has always been my favorite director. His understated direction and touching scores are the stuff of legend. Perfectly lit and beautifully shot, everyone pulls their weight. Perhaps Redford's best work, you can also expect to see Will Geer at the top of his game, and Stephan Gierasch & newcomer Delle Bolton (now a novelty shop owner in the southwest) take turns stealing their scenes as well. To say this is merely a great film does it a disservice.  It's more than just great - it's quintessential. Its a must-see. The tension the viewer feels as Johnson stops cold on his mount, listening to the silence, sensing something is amiss after breaking a native custom and having quietly led a rescue party through a burial ground rivals anything in the movies today - albeit more is left to the imagination. But after all, don't we yearn for more movies wherein we are forced to contemplate plot as opposed to essentially having it all but captioned for us? See this and thank me. Along with All the President's Men and Three Days of the Condor I'd put this atop that short Redford list. Yup. It's THAT good. The evidence: within 10 minutes you forget its a nearly 50 year old film. Now you'll excuse me, I'm going to start it from the beginning and watch it again.....Enjoy!! -Jim Boerner,  [email protected]

New Jersey-born John Garrison, a.k.a., John Johns(t)on (c.1824–1900) joined the Union Army in St. Louis, Missouri in 1864 and served with Company H, 2nd Colorado Cavalry. Honorably discharged in 1865, Johnson migrated further west and became a notoriously tough and ruthless trapper, Indian fighter, and lawman. In the 1880s he served as Deputy Sheriff in Coulson, Montana and later became Town Marshall in Red Lodge, Montana. He died of old age at a veteran's home in Los Angeles. Such are the rather prosaic facts of the real John Johnson. Then there is the myth. An associate of Wild Bill Hickock named Joseph (John) "White Eye" Anderson (1853–1946) seems to be the main source for the fantastic legends that accrued around Johnson in the second half of the 20th century. In 1941 Anderson regaled western writer Raymond W. Thorp with tall tales of "Crow Killer" or "Liver Eating Johnson," so named because Johnson allegedly slew between 300 and 400 (!) Crow warriors and ate their livers, raw, to avenge the murder of his pregnant wife in 1847 by a Crow hunting party—20 years before John Johnson moved West. Seventeen years after meeting Anderson, Raymond Thorp joined Robert Manson Bunker in writing 'Crow Killer: The Saga of Liver-Eating Johnson' (Indiana UP, 1958), a highly speculative "biography" that turned Anderson's wild fabrications into uncorroborated "fact." Noted western author Vardis Fisher further burnished the Johnson legend with his novel, 'Mountain Man' (Morrow, 1965). Building myth upon myths, screenwriter John Milius ('The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean') used Crow Killer and Mountain Man as his sources for Jeremiah Johnson, a movie that more realistically chooses to portray Johnson (Robert Redford) as a ascetic, romantic loner, not the vengeful, brutal monster recounted by White Eye Anderson. (Rather than waging a vendetta on the Crow, Redford's Johnson is constantly attacked by them.) Further enhancing Jeremiah Johnson's nobility and the film's lyricism are breathtaking vistas of the rugged Utah Rockies shot by Duke Callaghan (promoted to DP after serving as one of Sydney Pollack's cameramen on his previous film, 'They Shoot Horses, Don't They?'). If that were not enough, a lush musical score by John Rubenstein and Tim McIntire completes the picture. Yet, when the movie premiered at the 26th Cannes Film Festival on May 4, 1972, Robert Redford somewhat disingenuously told 'New York Times' interviewer Cynthia Grenier: "I wanted this film to be an antidote to the general feeling in the States today that getting away from civilization is such a terrific thing and is so romantic. I wanted to show the kids what it is really like going it on your own in the wilderness..." 'Jeremiah Johnson' might well have been the gritty western that Redford imagined it to be if producer Joe Wizan had gone with Clint Eastwood as Johnson and Sam Peckinpah as director, as was originally planned. The estimable (and once-blacklisted) Will Geer (best known as Grandpa on "The Waltons") plays Johnson's wilderness survival mentor, Bear Claw Chris Lapp. VHS (1997)and DVD (1997).

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.