Jeremiah Johnson

Director: Sydney Pollack Sydney Pollack

Overview

Years before Kevin Costner danced with wolves, Robert Redford headed to the mountains to escape civilization in Sydney Pollack's wilderness western. Around 1850, ex-soldier Johnson (Redford) decides that he would rather live alone as a mountain man in Colorado than deal with society's constraints. After a series of setbacks, he meets grizzled mountain veteran Bear Claws (Will Geer), who teaches him how to survive. Jeremiah strives to live as peaceably as possible in the rugged environment, trading with the native Crow tribe, adopting a boy (Josh Albee) after his family is massacred, and even marrying the daughter (Delle Bolton) of a Flathead chief in order to avoid confrontation. He settles into a mountain home with his family, but the U.S. cavalry, complete with a puritanical Reverend, interrupt the idyll to compel Jeremiah to lead them over the mountains and through a Crow burial ground to rescue white settlers. After the Crow kill his family in retaliation, Jeremiah's frenzied moment of payback precipitates a long-running vendetta, turning him into a legendary Indian killer at the expense of his original ideals, on the way to a final moment of grace. Spectacularly shot on location in Utah, the film captures both the appeal and the challenge of the landscape that Jeremiah chooses over civilization. With an unglamorous performance by Redford and a story that questioned white colonialism while mythologizing the man of nature, Jeremiah Johnson appealed to its 1972 audience and became one of the biggest hits of the year. Wavering between heroicizing Jeremiah for surviving and damning him for killing, Jeremiah Johnson took its place among the Vietnam-era cycle of critical westerns, like Arthur Penn's Little Big Man (1970) and Robert Altman's McCabe and Mrs. Miller (1971), that condemned civilization for corrupting the wilderness and preventing individuals from going pacifistically native.

Product Details

Release Date:	10/29/1997
UPC:	0012569732476
Original Release:	1972
Rating:	PG
Source:	Warner Home Video
Sound:	[monaural, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround]
Language:	English
Sales rank:	9,236

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Robert Redford	Jeremiah Johnson
Will Geer	Chris Lapp
Stefan Gierasch	Del Gue
Delle Bolton	Swan
Allyn Ann McLerie	Crazy Woman,Actor
Charles Tyner	Robidoux
Josh Albee	Caleb
Paul Benedict	Reverend
Matt Clark	Qualen
Richard Angarola	Lebeaux
Jack Colvin	Lt. Mulvey
Joaquín Martínez	Chemise Rouge
Tanya Tucker	Qualen's Daughter
Harry Morgan	Actor
Tim McIntire	Actor,Composer
Joaquin Martinez	Actor
John Rubinstein	Composer

Technical Credits

John Milius

Edward Anhalt

David Rayfiel

Sydney Pollack	Director
Joe Wizan	Producer
John Milius	Screenwriter
Edward Anhalt	Screenwriter
David Rayfiel	Screenwriter
Charles M. Wilborn	Sound Effects
Dan Wallin	Sound Effects
Rick Arnold	Stunts
Mike Moder	Producer

Editorial Reviews

Three years and four failures after Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Jeremiah Johnson was the hit that Robert Redford needed. It had a man-against-society edge that would be a hallmark of many Redford pictures, including Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here, Three Days of the Condor, and The Electric Horseman. In the context of early-1970s American culture, the film's environmental, anti-establishment, Henry David Thoreau-inspired message obviously struck a chord with audiences. Redford and director Sydney Pollack had worked together once before, on the woeful Tennessee Williams adaptation This Property is Condemned, but Johnson and the majority of their further collaborations would become successes (The Way We Were, Out of Africa). Pollack mortgaged his home to complete the film, which ran over-budget due to the extensive location shooting in Utah's Zion National Park. The mountain areas are wonderfully shot by cinematographer Duke Callaghan.