User reviews

There are many films which personify the era of the Mountain Man. This is perhaps one of the best. The reason why it is at the top of the list, is due in part to director Sydney Pollack's selection of natural wonders, majestic scenery and simplistic storyline. The movie tells the story of Jeremiah Johnson (Robert Redford) a veteran of the Mexican American war who decides to journey into the High Alpine Rockies to become a Mountain Man. Based very loosely on the novel by Vardis Fisher, the hero seeks the life of a trapper which offers Solace, wild adventure, aboriginal encounters and a chance for legendary exploits. During the first years of his experience, Johnson is befriended and threatened by both Native Americans and crazed mountain veterans who teach him and endanger him as well. Among the best is 'Bear Claw, Chris Lapp' (Will Geer), 'Paints His Shirt Red' (Joaquin Martinez) and Del Gue (Stefan Gierasch). (Delle Bolton) plays Swan and Josh Albee) is Caleb who become part of an instant family. The film is quite picturesque in its beautiful seasonal settings and entertaining to anyone seeking a chapter in the bygone era of a vanished breed. ****

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 a starkly simple story well told. It is the journey of a man who seeks to re-make himself. Johnson becomes disillusioned, like Thoreau and even Ulysses S. Grant, by the Mexican War and deserts to become a mountain man. There he finds the Rockies starkly beautiful and completely without mercy for him or anyone else. Will Geer plays the older trapper who teaches the 'Pilgrim,' a very solid performance by Redford, how to survive. The film's treatments of Whites and Native Americans is profoundly even handed, and Milious's fingerprints are noteworthy in the robust and calculated course of the narrative.

This is one of my all time favorite movies and evokes so much emotion from my childhood. My father and I have watched this movie at least 10 times together and it never gets boring. It reminds me of my days when we used to go on hikes in the woods and we would sing the theme song with me in my little coonskin (it's fake for all you animal lovers) cap. I just cannot get enough of this movie. It grows on my every time I watch it. It is one of if not the best Robert Redford movie ever. He does a fantastic job in this movie. The scenery is beautiful and makes me wish I was there in that unspoiled area. The dialogue, though there is very little compared to other movies, is brilliant. The old adage quality not quantity fits this movie to a tee. There are numerous one liners that have been incorporated into my everday vocabulary. "You cook good rabbit pilgrim." "....the Rocky Mountains are the marrow of the world..." "Watch your top notch." "Watch Yur'n." I could go on and on. Each character is colorful in it's own distinct way, making even the most insignificant ones unforgettable. The theme music is both haunting and beautiful and I've been looking to buy or download the soundtrack so if anyone knows where I could send me an e-mail. Not only does this movie have great characters,acting, dialogue, music, and scenery, but it also is filled with action and has several interjections of humor. I feel as though this is one of the greatest movies of all time and the special moments you share with your family watching it, just make this movie even better. (A 9/10).

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.

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.

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.

Oh boy I love this film. RR makes it his from the start as he stamps his mark indelibly on the film.

Have you ever seen such magnificent scenery as in this film.

This is one of the finest and most intelligent Westerns of all time.

A 4k bluray would really be appreciated.

Jeremiah Johnson is NOT a great narrative, instead it is a beautiful foray into the mind of the frontier. Rather than simply tell a story about men who live precarious existences on the far-flung frontiers of human habitation, it tries to show us what those men were like. This is not a perfect film, it has flaws... but it is a beautiful film and one that should be seen.

Perhaps Robert Redford was not the perfect choice to play Jeremiah, perhaps his soft good-looks do not complement what we would like to see in this semi-mythic character, perhaps he undermines just a tad of our credibility... but irregardless, he comes to embody Johnson. I find his gradual transformation from inexperienced explorer into savage force of nature to be entirely beleivable, if perhaps a bit strained.

Ultimately, the real problem lies in the film's narrative structure... it tends to meander too much and to never resolve itself in a meaningful manner. The story turns violent, but we don't really get a sense of why this violence is significant, or germaine to the plot. There are too many false endings, and the movie seems to end abruptly and without real closure.

However, even with all of these problems in mind, Jeremiah Johnson is an experience. It may not be a film that you want to rent with a bunch of friends, but rather a film to watch by yourself, when you are in sort of a contemplative mood. This is a film to relax to, to allow to happen rather than to actively engage it. There are a lot of things to think about and to reflect on, and the film is truly beautiful to watch. This may not be a film that you will watch often, but it is a film that you will value having watched.

Categorized as a Western but closer to " The Revenant" type movie its a must watch if you call yourself an outdoors man, Great Movie, Great Acting, Enjoy

Mexican war veteran Jeremiah Johnson (Robert Redford) is tired of the world and seeks to be a mountain man trapper. He struggles to survive until he runs into the frozen body of Hatchet Jack clutching his .50 caliber gun. It proves to be a much needed gun. Then he meets another mountain man Bear Claw (Will Geer) who takes him under his wing. He encounters Crow chief Paints-His-Shirt-Red and eventually befriends him. He runs across homesteader (Allyn Ann McLerie) and her mute son just after a Blackfeet raid. She pushes him to adopt her son whom Johnson calls Caleb. The duo go off and run across Del Gue (Stefan Gierasch) who the Blackfeet had buried up to his neck. Gue and Jeremiah find a Blackfeet camp ending up killing the Blackfeet. Jeremiah is disgusted with Gue taking scalps. The group meets Flathead indians who are in awe of Jeremiah. They assume he killed their enemy Blackfeet to avenge the crazy white woman of big medicine when they see the scalps. When he gives them the scalps and the Blackfoot ponies, the chief needs to give an even greater gift, his daughter Swan. Gue leaves them and Jeremiah is saddled with a son and wife neither of which he wanted. They eventually become a family with a cabin. Then the US Cavalry convinces Jeremiah to search for a wagon train. They go through a sacred Crow burial ground despite Jeremiah's objection. The Crow slaughters Caleb and Swan which sets off a long running quest for revenge.

Coming at a time of disenchantment, the public was ready to run away and rediscover America. At first glance, Robert Redford seems too refined for a mountain man role. However even Jeremiah didn't start out as a mountain man. Redford can slowly transition into a more rugged character. Sadly in the end, he fails to get to the truly insane mountain man character. He just doesn't have that in him.

The movie moves a little too slowly at times. Director Sydney Pollack could have tighten up the pacing a bit. There's a more melodic feel coming from this movie. It's not really the same as a Clint Eastwood and Sam Peckinpah western. I would expect that version would be more brutal. That may be a good idea for a remake.

"Jeremiah Johnson" may only run two hours, yet the video version I have actually stops midway through for a musical entr'acte. It sort of feels right. In patience if not true time, this is one of the longest movies I ever sat through.

Robert Redford is Jeremiah, a Mexican War veteran who has clearly had enough of civilization and wants to strike out for land where no white man has been. In the course of his travels, he meets a colorful grizzly-bear hunter (Will Geer), a scalp trader (Stefan Gierasch), a Flathead woman (Delle Bolton) and a boy (Josh Albee). None really are around very long, as Jeremiah's loneliness and individualism is pretty much the theme of the picture.

A film that feels very much of its time, with a folksy singer playing a guitar while a camera pans over miles of snow-covered mountains, "Jeremiah Johnson" has a rugged authenticity that commands respect, without ever spilling over into Granola-hippie platitudes. With John Milius co-writing the screenplay, there's no chance the film will stoop at the conventional political pieties of its day (or ours). Indians massacre whites, whites shoot animals for fur, a sign over the door of a trading post says "White men only," and no one questions why.

But the problem with the film is that it is a trial to watch through its slow but meritable first half, then loses its bearings to become a different, quicker, but dumber movie, a revenge story with the once-peaceable Jeremiah becoming "Crow-killer." I understood the transformation, but it feels somehow wrong, with a series of sudden battles between JJ and individual Crow warriors ("Lucky they were Crow. Apache would have sent 50 at once," the scalp trader tells him) and a final scene so abrupt it appears the producers ran out of money.

It's a one-man film, and Redford shows he can be interesting company. I'm not totally sold on his frontier authenticity, I know in real life the man is a big fan of the Great Outdoors, but he looks like Barry Gibb in buckskin with his big old beard. Still, he inhabits the small scenes well, like the one where he lights a fire or tries to teach his new Indian bride to say "Yes" or tries to take his legacy from the cold, dead hands of Hatchet Jack.

At times a good film, at times a dull one, "Jeremiah Johnson" showcases the spirit of western migration. Actually, one of the things Westerners would say was the toughest thing to face was not the hard winters or Indian attacks, but the boredom. Maybe "Jeremiah" is too authentic that way.

Jeremiah Johnson is unlike most films of its kind, which is a subgenre of the adventure film that follows a lone mountain man disillusioned by society who escapes to the frontier in order to become one with nature and reinvigorate himself. Strange how women never do this. Anyways, Robert Redford is surprisingly effective as the quiet, tough and determined title character who remains focused on his ultimate goal of remaining aloof and alone from all connections to anyone.

Unfortunately, he is bamboozled into a most peculiar family situation involving a mute son of a crazy pioneer woman and the daughter of a French-speaking Native American chief. In the end, what director Sydney Pollack is all about is showcasing how nature can indeed salve some of our pain and make us feel more comfortable with our situations. Nevertheless, true relationships with people cannot be substituted. Beautiful photography, strong performances and a most intriguing storyline all help create a very interesting film that is worth multiple views and considerable think time.

My favorite movie, a must watch if you like adventure stories. Perfect blend of action, adventure, scenery and some humor.

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 .

What an awesome movie!

The film was a little slow, and it was actually plotless, but it really had some fun, tension-filled moments! Definitely a recommended western from me. Especially with the gorgeous scenery! When the snow falls, you can't help but feel like you're in a trance. There's even a nice amount of character stuff, as the film progresses, to interest you. The music is also very suitable for the style of filmmaking on display, here.

My grandfather and I watched it together, and we really, really enjoyed it.

Jeremiah Johnson is directed by Sydney Pollack and is inspired by two books, Raymond Thorp and Robert Bunker's Crow Killer: The Saga of Liver-Eating Johnson and Vardis Fisher's Mountain Man. Script was written by John Millius and Edward Anhalt and cinematography is by Duke Callaghan. It stars Robert Redford, Will Geer, Stefan Gierasch, Delle Bolton and Josh Albee.

Hardened after the war with Mexico, and fed up with everyday life, American Jeremiah Johnson (Redford) leaves civilisation behind to live life as a mountain man. He intends to be self-sufficient as a trapper, but he finds that mother nature can be tough, and out here in the mountain wilderness he is not alone. There are others here, and Jeremiah must face many challenges if he is to truly survive.

Filmed entirely on location in the vast wilderness beauty of Utah, Jeremiah Johnson is light on plot but all the better for it. Film basically constitutes Redford's mountain man learning to survive up in them thar mountains, and, earning the right to do so. A number of issues will arise to test his metal, giving him a number of hardships and adventures to define his transformation from average Joe to a fully fledged mythical man of the Earth. Redford is wonderfully at ease in the title role, and very quickly he gets the audience on side to share in his journey. But ultimately it's the landscapes that you take away from this movie. Not only gorgeous, but also the critical character that frames Johnson during his isolation and battle for survival. 8/10

In his scything critique of the film, one of our more learned members known as "Cine6fr" (http://us.imdb.com/CommentsAuthor?511647) rightly pointed out that the film had "something to do with Frederick Jackson Turner's frontier thesis". But alas, the stereotypical nature of the characters kept him from appreciating the film. Hopefully the poor fellow learned a bit more about the frontier and film theory as time went on and realized the beauty of this film. Sydney Pollack's framing and editing is fantastic. The story communicates both the ethos of the "mountain man", and the American concept of the frontier in its totality. While the characters show some degree of humanity, ultimately the film chronicles the migration of "civilization" across the frontier and all the things it destroyed along the way. From wild life, to entire ways of life, Jeremiah's odyssey captures the twilight of a brief period in U.S. history.

Dull as dish water. No wait. Duller. I was so utterly bored that I started studying the patterns on my ceiling - which doesn't have any patterns. Damn!! I dunno... maybe one needs to be comatose to enjoy this thing. Unfortunately I'm a guy who yearns for a little excitement every now and then. The truth of the matter is that I really wanted to like this film. The theme of man going into nature I found appealing - I really loved INTO THE WILD (one of my favorite films from 2007) - but here I was just bored witless. Sure the on-location shooting in Utah was nice - loved the snow, the mountains, the valleys, the desert, etc. Redford was okay although I always saw him as more of a movie star than an actor in every role he played. I actually thought that Will Geer and Stefan Gierasch gave the more memorable performances here. But all this is a moot point because the whole affair is so dreadfully dull and pointless. Man meets some good Indians, man meets some bad Indians, man marries a good Indian, man wanders around the solitary landscape, man builds a house, bad Indians destroy said house, man wanders some more, etc. And all done with minimum dialogue. For large swathes of this film you feel like you're watching a silent movie. And none of what I saw I could engage in. I just flat out didn't care. I remember in the past thinking DANCES WITH WOLVES was boring but compared to this WOLVES is an outright adrenaline rush! Sydney Pollock really divides me - at times he can create very good stuff like THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR and THE YAKUZA and at other times he gives me coma-inducing stuff like this and OUT OF Africa. Still... the absence of Meryl Streep means that this one gets an extra point. Otherwise it may have been a 1/10. And that, of course, is PHANTOM MENACE territory. Thou shalt not enter.