Jeremiah Johnson
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Movie Reviews of Jeremiah Johnson
Movie Review: The Trapper's West
Summary: 5 Stars
Jeremiah Johnson was one of the first westerns to look at its subject matter minus the mythic notions that usually surround the genre. It's also interesting for not being about Cowboys and Indians or Range Wars or Outlaws on the Run, but about the singular experiences of the trapper, often lost in the Popular West and who more than any other western archetype defined the ideal of the loner leading a life free of European civilization and law. The film is sympathetic to this and relies more on its suggestion than any blatant statements of individuality. For its subtlety it is all the more powerful: the landscape itself becomes a lead, and the stoicism of the relationships between characters is broken by Will Geer's hell-for-leather rascality and the eruption of Redford's quiet rage. Based on Vardis Fisher's masterpiece novel Mountain Man, which in turn was based on the real experiences of John "Liver-Eating" Johnston, Jeremiah Johnson could be loosely categorized with films like McCabe and Mrs. Miller and The Gray Fox, or even those films that achieve clarity through humor or satire (although some would say these are not satires at all) like Little Big Man, Buffalo Bill and the Indians, and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. The action is visceral, the hero is also a villain, and the end is oddly uplifting.Movie Review: Very good movie about American West
Summary: 5 Stars
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!
Movie Review: Pollack's Best?
Summary: 5 Stars
Despite the Oscars for "Out of Africa," Sydney Pollack was underrated as both a director and an actor. Since his death two weeks ago, I've been revisiting his films on DVD. Least favorite: "The Way We Were"--a political chick flick in which the movie, like its anti-hero, sells out to sentimentality. Favorite: this one. I realize my "handle" and location indicate a certain prejudice in "Jeremiah Johnson"'s favor, but ask yourself where you've seen better cinematography of our West or a better performance by Robert Redford. How Pollack got studio money to make such a stark epic is the greatest miracle of all.
As an actor, Pollack is best known for his turn as Dustin Hoffman's frustrated agent in "Tootsie." Apparently it wasn't much of a stretch, since Pollack was Hoffman's very frustrated director. However, his role as the cynical billionaire in "Eyes Wide Shut" was one of the best things in the film. Best of all his roles was as the airhead-infatuated husband in Woody Allen's "Husbands and Wives," in which he had more states of mind or heart to convey: jaded, besmitten, ferociously disillusioned, finally compromising with full-circle return to precisely the same marriage he had left. A great performance.
Movie Review: One tough naturalist.
Summary: 5 Stars
Robert Redford plays Jeremiah Johnson,in the 1880's ?, a man not content to live among the people in the lowlands. To the mountains he went to live.
He meets an old mountain man and learns tips for survival .Never staying to long in one place he meets another man left for dead by a group of Crow Indians. The man is obnoxius and a louse. Liking to travel light and happiest alone, he ends up married with an Indian wife and saddled with an orphaned boy. The boy won't talk and the Indian wife cant speak english. He is a patient man and begins to draw the traumatized boy out of his shell. The Indian wife is patient as well and begins to gain Jeremiahs love. Jeremiah learns to love his strange family. A band of savage Indians, Crows again, ambushes the cabin when he is not there and murders his family.
Jeremiah becomes consumed with rage and thirsty for revenge he hunts down the Crows and kills them. Finally when his revenge is satiated he becomes again what he was before a loner in the mountains.
This is a beautiful film and a complex story you may need to watch it 2 or 6 times, because its just so enjoyable.
Movie Review: SOME SAY HE WILL NEVER DIE
Summary: 5 Stars
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