| Complete credited cast: | |||
| Robert Redford | ... | Jeremiah Johnson | |
| Will Geer | ... | Bear Claw | |
| Delle Bolton | ... | Swan | |
| Josh Albee | ... | Caleb | |
| Joaquín Martínez | ... | Paints His Shirt Red (as Joaquin Martinez) | |
| Allyn Ann McLerie | ... | Crazy Woman | |
| Stefan Gierasch | ... | Del Gue | |
| Richard Angarola | ... | Chief Two-Tongues Lebeaux | |
| Paul Benedict | ... | Reverend Lindquist | |
| Charles Tyner | ... | Robidoux | |
| Jack Colvin | ... | Lieutenant Mulvey | |
| Matt Clark | ... | Qualen | |
During the mid-nineteenth century, Jeremiah Johnson, after a stint in the US Army, decides that he would prefer a life of solitude and more importantly peace by living with nature in the mountains of the frontier of the American west. This plan entails finding a piece of land upon which to build a house. This quest ends up being not quite what he envisioned as he does require the assistance of others to find his footing, and in turn, he amasses friends and acquaintances along the way, some who become more a part of his life than he would have imagined. Perhaps most importantly, some of those people provide him with the knowledge of how to co-exist with some of the many Indian tribes, most importantly the Crow, on whose land in Colorado Jeremiah ultimately decides to build his home. But an act by Jeremiah upon a request by the US Cavalry leads to a chain of events that may forever change the peaceful relationship he worked so hard to achieve with his neighbors and their land. Written by Huggo
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.