Rating: 
Summary: A Universe of One
Review: No one can ever accuse Robert Redford of not taking on unorthodox roles, as indicated in this film as well as in others such as The Candidate (1972), Three Days of the Condor (1975), Sneakers (1992), and The Last Castle (2001). After serving in the U.S. Army, Jeremiah Johnson decides to become a mountain man in Colorado rather than accept what he saw as the limitations and constraints of civilization (such as it was) in the 1850s. Presumably he was trained in the use of weapons but hardly prepared for the dangers which await him. Throughout human history, food, shelter, and clothing have been essentials in life. Their importance is even greater to a mountain man who must obtain all three from natural resources. He ate whatever he could catch, trap or shoot. His temporary home could be a mud hut, a cave, a lean-to, or a sturdy tree branch high enough above the ground. He wore whatever he could devise from the hides of animals killed. (Hence the great value of bear, buffalo, and deer which provided both food and hides.) It is important to keep in mind that, for all intents and purposes, most mountain men were hermits. They were hunters, not farmers. During the severest of winter weather, they tended to hibernate like bears. They were almost always alone. For most of them, everything they needed and wanted could be found in the mountains. This is the life which Johnson fully embraced after an extended apprenticeship under the supervision of Bear Claws (played by Will Geer). Johnson is determined to live in peace. He adopts an orphan. He agrees to marry the daughter of a Flathead chief to avoid a confrontation with him. He is (in effect) compelled to serve as a guide to some U.S. cavalry on their mission to rescue settlers, at one point taking the most direct route through a Crow burial ground. In retaliation, the crow massacre Johnson's family. Over time, after frequent encounters, Johnson gains an almost mythic reputation as an Indian killer. The natural beauty of Johnson's world (identified as Colorado but filmed in Utah) has been brilliantly captured by cinematographers Andrew Callaghan and Duke Callaghan under Sydney Pollack's equally brilliant direction. That beauty is juxtaposed gracefully with constant perils and various acts of violence. Although Geer provides a commanding presence as Johnson's mentor, another interesting mountain man is portrayed by Khigh Dhieg whose zest for life contrasts effectively with the taciturn Johnson who rescues him at one point. (Dhieg later played the role of Dr. Yen Lo in The Manchurian Candidate.) Others who have reviewed this film have suggested parallels with Dances with Wolves, suggesting that both films glorify "natural man" while condemning the corrupting values of civilization's westward migration. That is debatable. My one objection, more a quibble than a complaint, is to the voice-over singing which seems to me to be the only inauthentic element. In all other respects, I think this is an outstanding cinematic achievement.
Rating: 
Summary: such good ideas, such bad execution
Review: This movie could've been great. Yet the dialogue is horrible, the complex relationship between the crow and J.J is not explained...it's butchered. This is an utterly horrible movie that just seemed to never end. Robert Redford can't perform better than the horrible role written for him and him fishing in the beginning of the movie shows how much the rest of movie will pale considering what it could've been. Horrible! Someone mentioned reading "Crow Killer" about J.J., just don't buy this horrid movie!
Rating:
Summary: REDFORD'S BEST.
Review: BACK BEFORE ROBERT REDFORD BECAME AN ACTIVIST HE WAS A PRETTY GOOD ACTOR AND THIS FILM DEMONSTRATES THAT.
DIRECTED BY 'OUT OF AFRICA' MOVIEMAKER SYDNEY POLLACK WHO USE TO DIRECT REDFORD FREQUENTLY, THIS WAS THE FIRST AND BEST OF THE 'MOUNTAIN MAN' MOVIES.
JEREMIAH JOHNSON LEAVES WAR AND CIVILIZATION BEHIND TO BECOME A TRAPPER AND ENJOY A LIFE OF SOLITUDE.
HIS GREENNESS SHOWS AND HE NEARLY STARVES AND FREEZES HIS FIRST JAUNT AFIELD.
WITH THE ASSISTANCE OF VETERAN GRIZZLY HUNTER WILL GEER HE LEARNS FAST AND SETS OUT TO FIND HIS LIFE IN THE WILDERNESS.
HE MEETS MANY INTERESTING CHARACTERS ALONG THE WAY SUCH AS 'DEL QUE' WHO SHAVES HIS HEAD HOPING THE INJUNS WONT TAKE HIS BALD SCALP.
JOHNSON IS FORCED TO ADOPT A MUTE BOY AND TAKE A SQUAW WIFE. HE LEARNS TO LOVE HIS IMPROMTU FAMILY AND IT SEEMS HE HAS FOUND HIS NICHE. THEN HE IS PURSUADED TO LEAD SOME SOLDIERS THROUGH A SACRED INDIAN BURIAL GROUND AND HIS WIFE AND BOY ARE SLAUGHTERED IN RETALIATION FOR THE DESECRATION.
JOHNSON GRIEVES PAINFULLY AND THEN SETS OUT TO TAKE HIS OWN VENGENCE. HE BECOMES A LEGEND DUE TO HIS SURVIVAL SKILLS
AND SOON TIRES OF THE FIGHTING.
HE IS TOLD BY A FELLOW MOUNTAIN MAN THAT THE REDSKINS "GREATNESS IS GAUGED BY HOW MIGHTY THEIR ENEMIES ARE."
AND IT SEEMS JOHNSON HAS REACHED SOME GOD LIKE STATUS AS THE WARRIORS STAND DOWN AND HE FINALLY FINDS THE PEACE HE WAS STRIVING FOR ALL ALONG. THIS IS A BEAUTIFUL FILM WITH EXCELLENT CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT. WILL GEER'S 'BEAR CLAW CHRIS LAP' STANDS OUT AND REDFORD HAS YET TO BETTER.
Rating:
Summary: Jeremiah Johnson
Review: The best movie ever! Scenery, characters and story are simply the best ever. From beginning to end spectacular.
Rating:
Summary: "Skin that'n Pilgrim!"
Review: A defining film for everyone to enjoy that fairly captures the hardships of pioneers in the mid 1800's. Just an incredible experience worth watching again and again. Never could figure out why Del Bolton disappeared after this movie. She is absolutely stunning but I really didn't notice myself until after I'd seen the movie for about the tenth time. Clearly the highlight of Redford's career and he is very credible as he eagerly learns the survival lessons of a mountainman from Will Geer, who obviously had fun with this part. Redford's metamorphosis as he moves from the hunter to the hunted is just amazing and the scene with Geer at the end of the film is one of the most poignant in movie history. Can't understand why they made Redford enunciate his words so clearly like nobody else around spoke English? The DVD transfer is outstanding and the sountrack is one of the best Hollywood ever produced. It moves perfectly with the pace and tone of the film. Timeless with few faults. 5 Bear Claws.
Rating: 
Summary: read the book first!
Review: This is a good movie that lends a brief view of the rugged life of a mountain man in the 1800's. However, the book it is taken from, Mountain Man by Vardis Fisher, is a far better way to engage in the depth of experience that a movie cannot (unfortunately) portray. Redford is, of course, great in the movie, but there is much more to the book than in the screenplay. I recommend the book first to all (it has been one of my favorite books for about a dozen years) and then the movie for the desert afterwards.
Rating:
Summary: A movie with a soul...
Review: Where is it that I can find deer, bear,
and other critters - for skinning ? Ride due west of the sunset,
Turn left at the Rocky Mountains Jeremiah Johnson
Made his way into the mountains
Bettin on forgegettin all the troubles that he knew
The Road was wide and narrow
The eagle and the sparrow
were the paths he was to follow
as they flew
A mountain mans a lonely man
and he leaves a life behind
It shouldn't ought to be that way
but he'll often times will find
That Jeremiah's story was that kind Anyone who can't see that this is one of the finest
movies ever made - from every aspect of film making
has no business judging any film - because - their
reasoning ability is deficient. And I wouldn't
waste my time debating them. I own it on VHS
And I own it in my soul.
"Watch yer top not - pilgrims"
Rating:
Summary: Classic Pioneer
Review: One of the best pictures Robert Redford has made. Far better than "Dances with Wolfs" about telling the story of the pain for both pioneers and indians when America was growing after the Civil War. Redford becomes a mountain man after being taken under the wing of Will Geer. A little comedy but overall a drama that shows the hardships of the times. Great supporting cast and direction, excellent locations, and good music make this well worth seeing. The price is very reasonable and the DVD is well worth owning.
Rating:
Summary: Mid-Lifer's Dream Movie
Review: Do balding, overweight, middle-aged desk jockeys dream of chunking it all, moving to the mountains and hiding away from society for the rest of their days? Yes, they do, and so Robert Redford, in concert with Sidney Pollack in 1972, provided a vehicle for our escape - though Redford's character hardly qualified for typical mid-lifer status. The appeal of this movie was strong enough for me to buy it after seeing it once on the big screen in my college days, watching it whenever it was on television, and renting it a few times in a video store. My VHS copy wore thin, so I could justify the purchase of a DVD player by getting the DVD version of Jeremiah Johnson. This rates as one of my all-time favorite movies. The movie is based on two books: Mountain Man and Crow Killer. That it's a guy movie is obvious: a man, fleeing society (the war between the United States and Mexico; he wears the remnants of military garb) heads toward what was then merely a Territory - the Rockies of Colorado in the 1830s, during the height of the "mountain man era." After purchasing his necessaries - heavy clothes, a horse, a mule, trapping equipment and a "genuine Hawkin (gun) - you can't go no better," he heads into the mountains and disappears. And then he meets the harsh realities and stark loneliness of living as a mountain man. He almost dies of starvation and exposure, but is saved by Will Greer, playing the part of a grizzled, grizzly-hunting old mountain veteran who teaches Johnson the tricks of survival in the wilderness. You catch glimpses - but no real explanation - of why he left for the hills. "It just ought not to have been the way it was," he tells Bearclaw when asked why he came. The movie then teaches that "the mountains have their own ways." Johnson learns to survive, takes an Indian woman as his wife and adopts an abandoned boy as his son, only to have them all violently taken away from him. The remainder of the movie tells the story of how Jeremiah Johnson became a legend in the mountains, wreaking mad vengeance on the Crow Indians that killed his family. The violent confrontations between Johnson and the Crow warriors in this film make it a "not for kids" movie in spite of the PG rating. Filmed in southern Utah, the spectacular wide-screen photography aptly portrays the wondrous beauty - and the stark hostility, for the unprepared - of the Rockies. I understand that Pollack mortgaged his home to help finance the film - Warner Brothers refused to budget more money for the on-location shooting, saying they would not pay more than it would cost were it to be filmed at the studio. The movie enjoyed great success, bringing in over [money]. And I would not categorize this film as a "western," per se - it is definitely its own story - not about cowboys and gunslingers, but about a man losing his life, finding it, and losing it again in the haunting backdrop of the mountain wilderness. "Some say he's up there still." Every time I feel the world closing in on me and the demands of living become overwhelming, I toss this tape in the VCR. The call to leave your burdens, conquer nature, to be your own person and answer to no one is always "up there" for us mid-lifers, I suppose, and it was communicated best in Jeremiah Johnson.
Rating:
Summary: mesmerising reasure
Review: i remember first watching this movie about 4 years ago on a wet saturday afternoon there was nothing on the telly and i was too tired to go for a run and i thought id give this one a go even though the title sounded dodgy ,well from the moment it started to its conclusion i was gripped ,what a brilliant movie , i would highly recommend this film to those who liked dances with wolves and the excellent outlaw josey wales .an underatted masterpiece ,watch it
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