Part of Weekend Classics: Robert Redford
Soured by civilization, Jeremiah Johnson (Robert Redford) sets out in the mid-1800’s to be a mountain man, seeking solitude in a wilderness whose purity he never questioned. His first mountain winter almost kills him. Starving and nearly frozen, he finds refuge with a wily old trapper (Will Geer) whose survival teaching includes going eyeball to eyeball with a grizzly. Directed by Sydney Pollock (see also THE WAY WE WERE).
Shot on location in Utah’s Wasatch Mountains — Redford’s stomping grounds where nearby Park City would become the home for the Sundance Film Festival, unspooling this month for its final year in Utah — a bittersweet but poignant tribute to Redford himself in the year of his passing.
“The quality of legend pervades Sydney Pollack's JEREMIAH JOHNSON, which stars Robert Redford in a role that must be very real to his own mind and feelings…. Redford plays it with a reticence and directness that also seem as much a part of the man as of the performance.” —Roger Greenspun, New York Times (Dec 22, 1972) “Pollack does right to put his faith in one man and a whole lot of mountains. The result is impressive.” —William Thomas, Empire Magazine “With generous use of white-capped panoramas, director Pollack and scriptwriter John Milius transform Vardis Fisher’s novel Mountain Man into a gritty, cinematic tall tale that resonates across geography, time, and the loneliest regions of the solitary heart.” —Marcel Meyer, Austin Chronicle
