Jeremiah Johnson Popular Books

Jeremiah Johnson Biography & Facts

Jeremiah Johnson is a 1972 American Western film directed by Sydney Pollack and starring Robert Redford as the title character and Will Geer as "Bear Claw" Chris Lapp. It is based partly on the life of the legendary mountain man John Jeremiah Johnson, recounted in Raymond Thorp and Robert Bunker's book Crow Killer: The Saga of Liver-Eating Johnson and Vardis Fisher's 1965 novel Mountain Man. The script was written by John Milius and Edward Anhalt; the film was shot at various locations in Redford's adopted home state of Utah. It was entered into the 1972 Cannes Film Festival. Plot Mexican War veteran Jeremiah Johnson takes up the life of a mountain man, supporting himself in the Rocky Mountains as a trapper. His first winter in mountain country is difficult, and he has a run-in with Paints-His-Shirt-Red, a chief of the Crow tribe. He starts out with a .30-caliber Hawken percussion rifle, which he uses as his main rifle until he finds the frozen body of mountain man Hatchet Jack clutching a .50-caliber Hawken rifle. Jack's will gives his rifle to the man who finds his corpse. With his new rifle, Johnson inadvertently disrupts the grizzly bear hunt of the elderly and eccentric Chris Lapp, nicknamed "Bear Claw", who mentors him on living in the high country. After a brush with Crows, including Lapp's acquaintance Paints-His-Shirt-Red, and learning the skills required to survive, Johnson sets off on his own. He comes across a cabin whose inhabitants were apparently attacked by Blackfoot warriors, leaving only a woman and her uncommunicative son alive. The woman, maddened by grief, forces Johnson to adopt her son. He and the boy, whom Johnson dubs "Caleb", come across Del Gue, a mountain man who has been robbed by the Blackfeet and buried by them up to his neck in sand. Gue persuades Johnson to help recover his stolen goods, but Johnson counsels against violence when they find the Blackfoot camp. The men sneak into the camp at night to retrieve Gue's possessions, but Gue opens fire and the mountain men then kill the Blackfeet. Gue takes several Blackfoot horses and scalps. Johnson, disgusted with the needless killing, returns to Caleb. Soon afterward, they are surprised by Christianized Flatheads, who take them in as guests of honor. Johnson unknowingly places the chief in his debt by giving him the Blackfeet horses and scalps. According to Flathead custom, to maintain his honor the chief must now either give his guest a greater gift or kill him. The chief gives his daughter Swan to be Johnson's bride. After the wedding, Gue goes off on his own and Johnson, Caleb and Swan journey into the wilderness. Johnson finds a suitable location to build a cabin. They settle into this new home and slowly become a family. This idyllic life is interrupted by the arrival of a U.S. Army cavalry rescue party tasked with saving a stranded wagon train of settlers. Although Johnson is reluctant, he is pressed into guiding the rescue party through the mountains, leaving his family alone at their cabin. During the journey, Lieutenant Mulvey orders the party to proceed directly through a sacred Crow burial ground against Johnson's advice. Afterward, Johnson returns home by the same route and notices that the graves are now adorned with Swan's blue trinkets; he rushes back to the cabin, where he finds both Swan and Caleb have been killed. Johnson sets off after the warriors who killed his family and attacks them, killing all but one, a heavy-set man who sings his death song when he realizes he cannot escape. Johnson leaves him alive and the survivor spreads the tale of the mountain man's quest for revenge throughout the region, trapping Johnson in a feud with the Crow. The tribe sends its best warriors one at a time to kill Johnson, but he defeats each one. His legend grows and the Crow come to respect him. He meets Gue again and returns to the cabin of Caleb's mother, only to find that she has died and a new settler named Qualen and his family are living there. Nearby the Crow have built a monument to Johnson's bravery, periodically leaving trinkets and talismans as tribute. Johnson and Lapp meet for a final time. It is at this poignant meeting between student and teacher that Lapp realizes the heavy toll that fighting an entire nation alone in a vast and lonesome frontier has taken on Johnson. Lapp indicates as much when he remarks that Johnson has "come far", to which Johnson replies "Feels like far." Lapp then queries "Were it worth the trouble?" Johnson later has a wordless encounter with Paints-His-Shirt-Red, presumed to be behind the attacks. While sitting astride their horses far apart, Johnson reaches for his rifle, but Paints-His-Shirt-Red raises his arm, open-palmed, in a gesture of peace that Johnson slowly returns, signaling an end to their conflict. The film ends with the song lyrics, "And some folks say, 'He's up there still.'" Cast Robert Redford as Jeremiah Johnson Will Geer as Bear Claw Chris Lapp Stefan Gierasch as Del Gue Delle Bolton as Swan Josh Albee as Caleb Joaquín Martínez as Paints His Shirt Red Allyn Ann McLerie as the Crazy Woman Paul Benedict as Reverend Lindquist Jack Colvin as Lieutenant Mulvey Matt Clark as Qualen Richard Angarola as Chief Two-Tongues Lebeaux Charles Tyner as Robidoux Tanya Tucker as Qualen's Daughter (uncredited).Production Development In April 1968, producer Sidney Beckerman acquired the film rights to the biographical book Crow Killer: The Saga of Liver-Eating Johnson by Raymond W. Thorp Jr. and Robert Bunker. By May 1970, the rights were acquired by Warner Bros., who assigned John Milius to write a screen adaptation. Based roughly on Crow Killer as well as Mountain Man: A Novel of Male and Female in the Early American West by Vardis Fisher, Milius first scripted what would become known as Jeremiah Johnson for $5,000 (equivalent to $38,000 in 2022); however, he was then hired to rewrite it several times and eventually earned $80,000 (equivalent to $600,000 in 2022). According to Milius, Edward Anhalt and David Rayfiel were brought in to work on the screenplay only for Milius to be continually rehired because no one else could do the dialogue. Milius says he got the idiom and American spirit from Carl Sandburg and was also influenced by Charles Portis's novel True Grit.The role of Jeremiah Johnson was originally intended for Lee Marvin and then Clint Eastwood, with Sam Peckinpah to direct. However, Peckinpah and Eastwood did not get along, so Peckinpah left and Eastwood decided to make Dirty Harry instead. Warner Bros. then stepped in and set up Milius's screenplay for Robert Redford. Without a director, Redford talked Sydney Pollack into it; the two were looking for another film to collaborate on after This Property Is Condemned (1966).Casting for the role of Swan, Jeremiah's wife, took three months. After auditioning for another role, actress Delle Bolton was spotted by the casting director, followed up by her participation in the UCLA S.... Discover the Jeremiah Johnson popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Jeremiah Johnson books.

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  • Life in the Far West synopsis, comments

    Life in the Far West

    George Frederick Ruxton

    George Frederick Ruxton was an explorer and adventurer extraordinaire. Born in England in 1820, he followed in his family’s footsteps and entered the military at the age of thirtee...

  • Die Kraft der Hingabe synopsis, comments

    Die Kraft der Hingabe

    Jeremiah Johnson

    Gott möchte Wunder und große Taten durch ein Ihm abgesondertes Volk wirken. Die Frage ist, haben wir unser Leben dem Herrn und Seinen Absichten völlig übergeben? Nur eine prophetis...

  • Jesus Calling, 365 Devotions with Real-Life Stories, with Full Scriptures synopsis, comments

    Jesus Calling, 365 Devotions with Real-Life Stories, with Full Scriptures

    Sarah Young

    Experience a deeper relationship with Jesus as you savor the presence of the One who understands you perfectly and loves you forever. This edition of the beloved devotional Je...

  • Jeremiah Johnson T02 synopsis, comments

    Jeremiah Johnson T02

    Fred Duval, Jean-Pierre Pécau & Jack Jadson

    Après avoir enterré son fils et sa femme, Jeremiah Johnson part sur le sentier de la guerre. On commence à entendre parler dans les montagnes Rocheuses de cadavres d'indiens Crow a...

  • Jeremiah Johnson T03 synopsis, comments

    Jeremiah Johnson T03

    Fred Duval, Jean-Pierre Pécau & Jack Jadson

    Jeremiah Johnson, le tueur de Crows, continue d'exercer sa féroce vengeance contre une tribu de Flathead qui l'avait fait prisonnier. Puis, pendant la guerre civile, il s'engage au...

  • Jeremiah Johnson T01 synopsis, comments

    Jeremiah Johnson T01

    Fred Duval, Jean-Pierre Pécau & Jack Jadson

    Tout le monde connaît Jeremiah Johnson sous les traits de Robert Redford dans le film de Sydney Pollack. Mais peu de gens savent que le personnage a bel et bien existé. Cette série...

  • Jeremiah Johnson de Sydney Pollack synopsis, comments

    Jeremiah Johnson de Sydney Pollack

    Encyclopaedia Universalis

    Une fiche de référence sur Jeremiah Johnson, un chefd'oeuvre de Sydney Pollack.Au début des années 1970, le western avait évolué vers deux sousgenres antagonistes, d'un côté le « w...

  • Jeremiah Johnson T04 synopsis, comments

    Jeremiah Johnson T04

    Fred Duval, Jean-Pierre Pécau & Jack Jadson

    Après la mort de femme folle, Jeremiah réunit une bande de trappeurs sanguinaires pour se venger de ses assassins. Les bandidos vont écumer la plaine sans faire de prisonniers, col...