Jeremiah Johnson

Rating:
Summary: Unforgettable Masterpiece From Director Sydney Pollack!
Review: Robert Redford and Sydney Pollack, the Academy Award-winning director of Out of Africa team up (the 2nd of their 6 films together) for this powerful saga of a man whose determined search for contentment leads to back-breaking, even mind-breaking hardship, and to constant battle with hostile native Americans. This absolutely unforgettable and spectacularly beautiful, yet haunting adventure film captures both the epic scale of an unconquered Nature and the small, frustrating, hard scrabbling struggles of a lone man desperately trying to start a fire during a gale-force blizzard, cross a meadow knee-deep in snow or catch something, anything, to eat.

Filmed entirely on location in winter-time Utah, this movie captures on film Jeremiah Johnson's (Robert Redford) attempt in the mid 1800s to become a mountain man, seeking solitude in a wilderness whose purity he never questioned. This film is sure to find it's way into the private library of every connoisseur of superb movie making, and is one of those very rare films you can enjoy again and again! Masterpiece!

Rating:
Summary: SOME SAY HE WILL NEVER DIE
Review: A classic film, JEREMIAH JOHNSON starring Robert Redford continues to be an enduring statement about survival, priorities and the lasting beauty of a lost western frontier. Based on the vintage western book Mountain Man by Vardis Fisher.

Johnson moves west to escape a war-filled past and to find what he hopes will be a better lifestyle. Instead he discovers himself and realizes he doesn't know.

Befriended by Bear Claw Grislap, a seasoned mountain man played wonderfully by Wil Geer, Johnson is trained and prepared for what will be an arduous life. When Crow warriors cruelly murder his adopted son and his Indian wife, Swan played by Delle Bolton, Johnson is forced to engage in a personal war, one man against his enemies. The war he engages includes one of the most gripping fight scenes you will ever see on film and leads to a poignant movie climax.

"Some say Johnson is dead on account of this others say he never will be on account of this." From the standpoint of a classic film I choose to believe the latter.

Douglas McAllister

Rating:
Summary: A PG narrative of "Liver-Eatin' Johnson"
Review: This movie is one of several fascinating historical threads that I have been following since I first saw it as a 12-year old and loved it. First, it is based on the actual life of a mountain man named John Johnston, later changed to Johnson, and known in the West from the mid-1840s as Liver-Eating Johnson (see the book "Crow Killer" published 1958, R.W. Thorp & R. Bunker). I did not know this until recently and assumed it was all fiction. He was a huge man for his time, 6'2" and 240 pounds in his early 20's, had fists the size of baked hams and was best in hand-to-hand fighting with his 16" Bowie knife. Thorp and Bunker based the book on first-person interviews with several mountain men and others who had known of him, including, surprisingly, the famous photographer of the 1870's West, W.H. Jackson (photographer for the Hayden Expedition and famous for the first photograph of Mount of the Holy Cross near Vail, Colorado), but the real detail being furnished by an old mountain man named White-Eye Anderson, who told the story to R.W.T. in 1941 when he was in his 90's. After Johnson's Flathead wife was murdered on the Musselshell in Montana by a band of young Crow braves, Johnson "took the trail" on the entire Crow nation. His calling card, for over 20 years of butchery on the Crows, was to remove the liver of every Crow he killed and eat it. The Crows called him "Dapiek Absaroka". Vardis Fischer, on whose book this movie is based, "borrowed" as well certain scenes from a book written in the 1840's called "Life in the Far West" by George Ruxton, a first-person account of life in and near the Colorado Rockies. This movie does a fine job with a subset of Johnston's life, leaving out his service in the Civil War, and his later life as a town marshal and finally, his death in an old veterans home in Los Angeles. I got the notion that Fischer's book bordered on plagiarism after reading Ruxton, and after reading Crow Killer it seems all Fischer did was change Johnson's name to Jeremiah and slap on a cover with his name on it. The movie also leaves out that Johnson spies, among the pile of bones that was his wife outside the cabin, a round object about the size of an orange - the skull of his unborn baby. He collects the bones of wife and baby and puts them in an iron pot and inters them behind carefully mortised rocks near the cabin; a shrine, his "kittle 'o bones" those closest to him called it (never in his presence) he visits over the years. Will Geer's character, near as I kin figger, is based on a friend of Johnson's named "Bear Claw" Chris Lapp, a man known to say, when presented with grizzly claws his mountain man friends collected for him to make necklaces of, "Great Jehosophat! Pocahontas and John Smith!" The Crazy Woman, one of the most sympathetic characters I have ever seen in a movie, was in real life the wife of John Morgan, a foolish homesteader on the Oregon Trail who quarreled with the wagon master and took off on his own only to be tomahawked and scalped alive by Crows, his daughter raped and scalped alive, and his two young sons killed. Mrs Morgan, having killed several of the Indians with an axe yet driven insane by the loss, lived on the Musselshell and was cared for by Johnson and his fellow mountain men for years. The movie leaves out the little detail that she and Johnson beheaded the Crow corpses and set them on stakes at each corner of the graveyard where she buried her children, the weathered skulls a powerful medicine for the Crows ever after. It was the Crow's deference to this insane white woman living in their midst that finally convinced Johnson to call off his vendetta against them, after having killed nearly 400 Crow warriors. Liver-Eating Johnson's grave (and here I borrow heavily from "Crow Killer") is in a cemetary off of Sepulveda Boulevard (interesting, that. One of Johnson's comrades was a huge black-bearded Hispanic named "Big Anton Sepulveda") in a section called San Juan Hill, row D, 2nd stone from the road reads "Jno. Johnston, Co. H, 2nd Colo. Cav.". Get the movie and enjoy it; it's a true story. Only took me 30 years to find that out.

Rating:
Summary: "Liver Eating" Johnson's story
Review:

Although highly fictionalized, this is the story of a real Mountain Man, whose nom-de-plume was "Liver Eating" Johnson--so-called because he habitually ate the livers of the Crow Indians he killed in his vendetta against them.

I was surprised by the casting of Redford as Johnson--almost as ridiculous as casting Alan Ladd as Jim Bowie in the old movie, The Iron Mistress, and for the same reason: Alan Ladd was a shrimp. Bowie was well over six feet tall in his stocking feet; some say six foot five.

But Redford came through with flying colors, although the screen writers left out many fascinating details of Johnson's (originally Johnston) exciting life. The movie was filmed in the wilds of Utah, and filming began before the script was finished. Weather was a huge problem, as well, and the studio never spent enough money and effort promoting it, but still it did very well at the box-office, eventually.

Driving through Montana and northern Wyoming several years ago, we passed Crazy Woman Mountain, which I think was probably named after Mrs. Morgan (in the story), whose family was killed by Crows (as was Johnson's); hence his killing spree.

This is a movie well worth seeing. It is not only entertaining, but the Utah scenery is delightful, and there is even a little insight into the actual hardships of the real Mountain Men of the Rockies, Sierras, Cascades and Blue Mountains of the West.

Joseph (Joe) Pierre

Rating:
Summary: The best of any Mountain Man Movies
Review: My very favorite Mountain Man movie.

Rating:
Summary: "Liver Eating" Johnson's story
Review:

Although highly fictionalized, this is the story of a real Mountain Man, whose nom-de-plume was "Liver Eating" Johnson--so-called because he habitually ate the livers of the Crow Indians he killed in his vendetta against them.

I was surprised by the casting of Redford as Johnson--almost as ridiculous as casting Alan Ladd as Jim Bowie in the old movie, The Iron Mistress, and for the same reason: Alan Ladd was a shrimp. Bowie was well over six feet tall in his stocking feet; some say six foot five.

But Redford came through with flying colors, although the screen writers left out many fascinating details of Johnson's (originally Johnston) exciting life. The movie was filmed in the wilds of Utah, and filming began before the script was finished. Weather was a huge problem, as well, and the studio never spent enough money and effort promoting it, but still it did very well at the box-office, eventually.

Driving through Montana and northern Wyoming several years ago, we passed Crazy Woman Mountain, which I think was probably named after Mrs. Morgan (in the story), whose family was killed by Crows (as was Johnson's); hence his killing spree.

This is a movie well worth seeing. It is not only entertaining, but the Utah scenery is delightful, and there is even a little insight into the actual hardships of the real Mountain Men of the Rockies, Sierras, Cascades and Blue Mountains of the West.

Joseph (Joe) Pierre

Rating:
Summary: Very good movie about American West
Review: Jeremiah Johnson is an excellent movie boasting a very good performance by Robert Redford. Jeremiah Johnson is a man fed up with civilization so he decides to go west and become a mountain man. At first, he struggles to survive, but he comes upon an old grizzled mountain man, Bear Claw, who teaches him how to survive on his own in such a harsh environment. Now living on his own, Jeremiah comes upon a boy whose family has been massacred by Crow Indians and takes him along with him. He also takes an Indian wife, and the trio make an unlikely family. This is a very good movie that shows very accurately what life was like in the mid 1800's. As well, the film is beautifully shot in the mountains of Utah.

Robert Redford is very good as mountain man, Jeremiah Johnson, who becomes a legend during his time in the mountains. Redford is surprisingly believable in the role as the mountain man who must survive on his own. Will Geer is perfectly cast as the grizzled mountain man, Bear Claw, who teaches Jeremiah how to survive. The DVD offers widescreen and fullscreen presentations, production notes, and a making of featurette. This is a very good movie that does not shy away from showing it like it was in the west before it was settled. For an excellent movie with a great performance by Robert Redford, check out Jeremiah Johnson!

Rating:
Summary: Short and Sweet
Review: JJ is a film worth seeing, especially if you like a subtle, spiritual, Zen-like style. Like Pollock's amazing 'Out of Africa' (also with Redford) JJ streeses 'the land' and man's relationship to it (which is a subject of tremendous personal interest to Redford). See other reviews on this website for plot details and the cast/crew (no need to reinvent the review wheel). JJ is not your typical artificial "Hollywood" western. It is brutely realistic. BTW, there was a real JJ, and the film is based loosely on his life. JJ on DVD is one of those films that really benefits from the DVD format; the spectacular Utah scenery really comes through. The add-ons that come with the DVD (about filming JJ, mountain men, key personnel, trailers, etc.) are interesting, albeit short in scope. BTW, one review of JJ on this website says that Khigh Dhieg (of Manchurin Candidate fame) played JJ's mountain man friend Del Gue. Not so. Gue was actually played by Stefan Gierasch. The dialogue is sparse, and pity (and occassionally hilarious in a wry way), written mostly by the brilliant John Milius (Dirty Harry and Apocalypse Now and many more). The DVD 'The Mountain Men' (also available from Amason) is also worth owning if you are 'into' the whole Rocky Mountain mountain man saga. It's quite an interesting DVD (its a detailed documentary about a brief slice of America history during JJ's time) and the real JJ is mentioned it. Another good reason to get the DVD is the soundtrack, which is very pretty and benefits from the higher fidelity of the DVD format.

Rating:
Summary: An Icon of the American West
Review: Few western genres have adequately portrayed what drove people to become pioneers or trappers and what life was really like for them. This movie stands in its own league in showing exactly what life was like for those brave trappers and early pioneers who decided to make the great move West.

Redford plays a soldier who is fed up with the false trappings of civilized life; he decides to become a mountain man and move west. Brilliant cinematography captures the brutal elements of the untamed wilderness. The folk music adds to the flavor of the movie.

Some reviewers have complained that the movie is slow or absent in dialogue: that is exactly the point. That is how the movie captures the viewer into feeling what amounted to a very stoic and solitary life in the wilderness.

This movie is a masterpiece which stands in its own league and has no equal to compare with. If you like down to earth movies about the real West, this is definitely a movie to own.

Rating:
Summary: An American Masterwork!
Review: If one can point to a single film that served to establish Robert Redford's credentials as a bankable movie star and a man willing to explore interesting and provocative stories and issues, it was this absorbing fact-based tale of a former U. S Army veteran turned reclusive mountain man named Jeremiah Johnson. The movie caused such a stir in the American west that when I lived there briefly in the mid 1970s, shortly after its theater release, there were many, many urban refugees making a stab at following Johnson's legendary example of a return to wild nature theme along Utah's Wasatch front. One would find mild mannered, longhaired, and heavily bearded young men with their well scrubbed blond haired women padding through the local Ogden, Utah supermarkets in their simple threadbare clothing, looking for basic provisions of Cheerios, Cheetos and California wine, climbing back into their muddy Jeep Renegades, and disappearing back into the wild places.

The movie itself is a joy to experience, a travelogue of the Rocky Mountain West, with breath-taking vistas and wide-angled panoramas of the rugged mountain terrain providing a magnificent backdrop to the unfolding tale. Johnson (Redford) is fleeing what he regards the senseless futility of modern (circa 1850) civilization, preferring to live a life of true rugged individualism, and endeavoring to survive long enough to become a mountain man. In the midst of his feeble first attempts to do so, he encounters a wise old goat played beautifully by the late Will Geer, and through Geer's tutelage Johnson gradually evolves into a skilled and self-reliant practitioner of the art of bare-knuckled survival. And we come to care about his man who wants nothing so much as a more meaningful and more centered existence.

Of course, there is trouble along the path to such a life, and the fractious interplay between arrogant soldiers and unpredictable Indians living in the mountains provide the coda to which his actions and eventual legend begins to unfold. Johnson gradually finds company both by way of a lovely and loving Indian woman, and an orphan he takes in after rampaging Indians murder the boy's family. One of the most interesting of the themes of the movie was the way in which the reasons, issues and concerns of Native Americans are portrayed, so that one sees them more as the complex, intelligent, and complex people they were rather than as the cardboard villains Hollywood has characteristically painted them as being.

In essence, this was an attempt by Redford to give a thought-provoking and thoughtful message about the nature of our culture and the importance of respect for different ways of living as well as different forms of culture, with his conclusion leaving us asking some important questions about prevailing cultural presumptions and the way we view ourselves and others. I ask the viewer to watch the final frames carefully, as Johnson provides a friendly greeting to an Indian brave, providing the signal the long war between them is over, as they pass dangerously close to each other. Some less diligent viewers suggested, to Redford's intense later frustration, that he was giving the brave the finger! Redford shook his head in disbelief, wondering aloud how anyone could possibly come away with such a notion from what he had presented so well cinematically. All in all, a great film, and one I heartily recommend for your collection. Enjoy!