Jeremiah Johnson

Jeremiah Johnson (1972) is a film about Jeremiah Johnson, a disenchanted ex-soldier entering the realm of the mountain men, infamous for eating the livers of Crow warriors. It was directed by Sydney Pollack, and starred Robert Redford as Jeremiah Johnson and Will Geer as Bear Claw. This movie is said to have been based in-part on the life of the legendary mountain man Liver-Eating Johnson. It is also based on the novel Mountain Man by Vardis Fisher.

Plot

Johnson, a veteran of the Mexican-American War seeking refuge in the West, tries to take up the life of a mountain man, supporting himself in the western mountains as a trapper. He has difficulty surviving, and has a brief run in with Paints His Shirt Red, a Crow tribe Indian. He only becomes successful after teaming up with Bear Claw, who shows him how to live in the mountains. After a brush with Crow Indians, including Paints His Shirt Red, and learning the skills required to survive in the mountains, he sets off on his own.

In his travels he comes across a small cabin. The inhabitants apparently were attacked by Crow warriors, and only a woman, and her uncommunicative son survived. The woman forces Johnson to adopt her son. He and the boy, whom Johnson dubs "Caleb" come across Del Gue, a mountain man with a severe dislike of several local Indian tribes, who had been robbed and buried in the sand by the Blackfoot tribe. Del Gue travels with Johnson and Caleb, and they eventually come across a Blackfoot camp.

The group revisits the camp in the middle of the night to claim Del Gue's possessions, but Del Gue fires upon them. Johnson and Del Gue are victorious, and take the Blackfeet's horses and scalps. They are soon accosted by the Christianised Flathead Indians, who take them in as guests of honor for their brave deeds. When Johnson gives them the Blackfoot horses, they must give him an even greater gift according to their customs, so they give an unwilling Johnson the Chief's daughter's (Swan's) hand in marriage. Del Gue goes off on his own way, and Johnson, Caleb, and Swan start to get along after a while. Just when his life seems to be turning around, Johnson is required to pass through a Crow burial ground to help save a stranded wagon train. Because of his trespassing on the sacred ground, The Crow tribe sends a group to kill Swan and Caleb.

He sets off to find the group that killed his family, and ambushes them, killing all but one heavier warrior who starts to sing his own death song when he realizes he can't outrun Johnson. He is soon thrown into a bloody feud with the Crow people. The tribe sends one warrior at a time to do battle with Johnson, and he steadily defeats them, eating the genitals of each and gaining increasing notoriety for this perversion.

The film portrays the decline of the mountain man lifestyle, and the influx of settlers to the old hunting grounds. The original plan was to have Johnson die at the end, but his fate is left hanging in this film, when Paints His Shirt Red is sent to kill him. The concluding scene, however, seems to imply strongly that Jeremiah Johnson and Paints-His-Shirt-Red concluded peace between themselves and, by extension, between Johnson and the Crow people.

Tagline: His Mountain. His Peace. His Great Hunts. His Young Bride. With All That, It Should Have Been Different.

Trivia

In Italy, the movie appeared with the title Corvo Rosso non avrai il mio scalpo, "Red Crow, you won't have my scalp". It also inspired an Italian comic book character, Ken Parker.

Mentioned in the novel Waiting for White Horses, by Nathan Jorgenson.

Featured cast

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