"Jeremia Johnson took his horse up to the mountain.... Jeremia Johnson took his horse up to the mountain"...
That is the theme song of this movie, and the entire plot, so I should have included a "Spoiler Alert"... except there's really nothing there to spoil.
This is a movie about a man who is an apparent former soldier, who decides to leave society and live in solitude for the rest of his life in the mountains. It is not explained who he is, why he came to this decision, or anything else about him. We learn absolutely nothing about him in two hours of silence in this film. We do learn that Indians don't like him. Maybe it's the beard. Maybe it's because an Indian woman decides she wants to sleep with and live with the first white man she's ever seen, despite the fact he can't communicate with her, hasn't had a bath in a year and has a long scratchy beard.
Of course, civilization won't leave him alone. Random people wander into his life, call him "pilgrim", and wander out again for years at a time. He adopts an orphan boy he calls "boy". Of course, just when he has something of a family again, the Indians decide to show up and wipe them out. This cliché of killin' the missus and the young'un sets up Redford's vendetta against the Indians. They show up, one at a time, week after week, to prove their manhood by killing him. Of course, this earns them a one way ticket to the Happy Hunting Ground, as Redford dispatches brave after brave, despite their size, speed or fighting skills. Redford is completely non-credible as a "mountain man". He looks and acts like he just got out of makeup, despite the gnarly beard. He never for one moment looks happy with the solitude he sought. He lives alone, avoiding people, waiting for the next Indian to try to kill him. The movie to me felt like a long, slow exercise in masochism by Redford's character. I felt like I was engaging in the same masochism by sitting through it. Finally, his ol' buddy wanders back by after three years and Redford asks him if he knows what month it is; March, April? The old man replies "March...maybe. April, I don't think so. Well, take care, Pilgrim". He then leaves. That is their entire conversation. There is time for one more fight with a random Indian at the end which Redford butchers, of course, then the credits roll. That is the movie.
It is as if Sydney Pollack deliberately wanted to make a movie as devoid of dialogue, structure, plot, purpose or meaning as he could, and as if doing that would impart meaning on this film. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to. He only succeeds in the former. I have to wonder if even Robert Redford understood what the point to the film was, if any. You feel a lot of time passing in the movie, and you feel a lot of your own life has as well watching it.
At the end of the credits, we hear the same lone singer we heard at the beginning: "Jeremiah Johnson, took his horse up to the mount-ain, Jeremia Johnson, took his horse up to the mount-ain". (I always felt sorry for that poor horse).
"And some folks say... he's up there still". ....Yes? And? The man wanted to be left alone. You should've respected his wishes, and not filmed him to begin with.
That is the theme song of this movie, and the entire plot, so I should have included a "Spoiler Alert"... except there's really nothing there to spoil.
This is a movie about a man who is an apparent former soldier, who decides to leave society and live in solitude for the rest of his life in the mountains. It is not explained who he is, why he came to this decision, or anything else about him. We learn absolutely nothing about him in two hours of silence in this film. We do learn that Indians don't like him. Maybe it's the beard. Maybe it's because an Indian woman decides she wants to sleep with and live with the first white man she's ever seen, despite the fact he can't communicate with her, hasn't had a bath in a year and has a long scratchy beard.
Of course, civilization won't leave him alone. Random people wander into his life, call him "pilgrim", and wander out again for years at a time. He adopts an orphan boy he calls "boy". Of course, just when he has something of a family again, the Indians decide to show up and wipe them out. This cliché of killin' the missus and the young'un sets up Redford's vendetta against the Indians. They show up, one at a time, week after week, to prove their manhood by killing him. Of course, this earns them a one way ticket to the Happy Hunting Ground, as Redford dispatches brave after brave, despite their size, speed or fighting skills. Redford is completely non-credible as a "mountain man". He looks and acts like he just got out of makeup, despite the gnarly beard. He never for one moment looks happy with the solitude he sought. He lives alone, avoiding people, waiting for the next Indian to try to kill him. The movie to me felt like a long, slow exercise in masochism by Redford's character. I felt like I was engaging in the same masochism by sitting through it. Finally, his ol' buddy wanders back by after three years and Redford asks him if he knows what month it is; March, April? The old man replies "March...maybe. April, I don't think so. Well, take care, Pilgrim". He then leaves. That is their entire conversation. There is time for one more fight with a random Indian at the end which Redford butchers, of course, then the credits roll. That is the movie.
It is as if Sydney Pollack deliberately wanted to make a movie as devoid of dialogue, structure, plot, purpose or meaning as he could, and as if doing that would impart meaning on this film. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to. He only succeeds in the former. I have to wonder if even Robert Redford understood what the point to the film was, if any. You feel a lot of time passing in the movie, and you feel a lot of your own life has as well watching it.
At the end of the credits, we hear the same lone singer we heard at the beginning: "Jeremiah Johnson, took his horse up to the mount-ain, Jeremia Johnson, took his horse up to the mount-ain". (I always felt sorry for that poor horse).
"And some folks say... he's up there still". ....Yes? And? The man wanted to be left alone. You should've respected his wishes, and not filmed him to begin with.