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Jeremiah Johnson
WoundedWolf
Member Posts: 1,658 ✭✭✭✭✭
AMC has been showing this classic film for the past 3 days.
I love this movie.
My buddies and I saw it when it was released in Atlanta, January of 1973.
I was just blown away by this film. There had never been a movie like this before.
It showed Indians as heroes. It showed Indians as nasty bad guys.
It showed White boys as heroes. It showed White boys as nasty bad guys.
The sense of adventure, and danger, were a magnetic draw to me.
As we walked through the theatre lobby, at the end of the movie, my pals and I decided to go West, and live like Jeremiah Johnson.
We were suburban kids. We knew nothing of hunting, or horses, or living in the wilderness.
We went to stables, and took horse riding lessons.
We bought rifles, and practiced shooting. My pal Lorne even bought a .50 Hawken.
We bought books on wilderness survival. We got "Horses, Hitches, and Rocky Trails," which tells how to handle pack horses, and tie the Diamond Hitch. This is a knot you tie with 35 feet of 1/4 inch rope, to secure your packs [panniers] to the pack horse. If you can't tie a Diamond Hitch, you are not a Mountain Man.
We got in touch with about 20 outfitters, and big game guides, in British Columbia, to find someone who would rent us horses.
We made two panniers from plywood.
We had quickly figured out that the U.S. was too settled, to let us live out our fantasy.
We wound up spending 3 months that summer in the wilderness of British Columbia, living like Jeremiah Johnson. We had horses to ride, and a pack horse to carry our gear.
We had 20 pounds of flour, and 20 pounds of rice, canned butter, canned powdered milk etc.
We shot grouse, squirrels, and other wild game for food.
Thank you, Robert Redford, and Sidney Pollack, for making this remarkable film.
I still love to watch this movie.
I love this movie.
My buddies and I saw it when it was released in Atlanta, January of 1973.
I was just blown away by this film. There had never been a movie like this before.
It showed Indians as heroes. It showed Indians as nasty bad guys.
It showed White boys as heroes. It showed White boys as nasty bad guys.
The sense of adventure, and danger, were a magnetic draw to me.
As we walked through the theatre lobby, at the end of the movie, my pals and I decided to go West, and live like Jeremiah Johnson.
We were suburban kids. We knew nothing of hunting, or horses, or living in the wilderness.
We went to stables, and took horse riding lessons.
We bought rifles, and practiced shooting. My pal Lorne even bought a .50 Hawken.
We bought books on wilderness survival. We got "Horses, Hitches, and Rocky Trails," which tells how to handle pack horses, and tie the Diamond Hitch. This is a knot you tie with 35 feet of 1/4 inch rope, to secure your packs [panniers] to the pack horse. If you can't tie a Diamond Hitch, you are not a Mountain Man.
We got in touch with about 20 outfitters, and big game guides, in British Columbia, to find someone who would rent us horses.
We made two panniers from plywood.
We had quickly figured out that the U.S. was too settled, to let us live out our fantasy.
We wound up spending 3 months that summer in the wilderness of British Columbia, living like Jeremiah Johnson. We had horses to ride, and a pack horse to carry our gear.
We had 20 pounds of flour, and 20 pounds of rice, canned butter, canned powdered milk etc.
We shot grouse, squirrels, and other wild game for food.
Thank you, Robert Redford, and Sidney Pollack, for making this remarkable film.
I still love to watch this movie.
Comments
Great flick, makes me want to run up into the hills and be a Mountain Man.
Interesting that Redford had a lot of the movie shot on or near his own property in Utah.
-Wolf
That movie's the reason there's a fifty-caliber Hawken on the wall over the 1880s furniture.
The movie seems kinda funny seeing's how Redford is such a raving leftie, but then again them Hollywood types don't mind playing with guns to make a buck.
My friends and I saw it at the theatres when it was first released, January of 1973.We were young 20 and 22 year old guys, that film just blew us away. While walking out of the theatre, we decided we would spend that summer in the Rockies, being mountain men.
We lived in Atlanta. We spent the whole winter and spring, buying rifles, learning how to ride horses, etc.
We wound up spending the summer in the wilderness of British Columbia. We rented horses from an outfitter, and we had a pack horse to carry our stuff. It was grizzly territory, but we never saw a griz, thank God.
Our pack horse fell into the river and almost drowned. Most of our food got swept away. I had to shoot a moose so we would have some food. I had the Herter's handbook, which taught how to make a smoker out of sticks. So we smoked up 50 pounds of moose meat, we were back in business.
Will Geer is way cool as Bearclaw Chris Lapp.
Not to highjack, but I like "A river runs through it," which he produced and Directed, even better. Not sure which I have seen more times.
He hunted and killed the Indians that mudered his sqaw wife for about 10-12yrs after her death and according to legend would cut out their livers and take a bite out of them. -- One tough dude.
I enjoyed the movie, but always thought they should have had someone like Clint Walker play Johnson ( he was about the same size) to make it believable.
-Wolf
Great flix.
Kit Carson was a mountain man. He stood five foot five.
Robert Redford is no Kit Carson. And as good a guide and mountain man as Carson was he didn't declare a personal war of vengence against any tribes.
They sent the best warriors they had after J. Johnson for years and he killed them all and ate their livers -- To the point of them thinking he was a Spirit figure.
A genuine bad *. -- Just couldn't believe Redford as J.J., but he made a good Sundance Kid.
But I still enjoyed the movie for entertainment.
It is in a tie, now with Citry Slickers- Hey Curly, Killed anyone yet today? "Day ain't over yet!"
Jeremiah Johnson had the line that for years was my favorite- Will Geer rides up to Redford and asks what cooking, Redford responds "grown particular?" to which Geer responds "Not about the food, just the company!"
It is in a tie, now with Citry Slickers- Hey Curly, Killed anyone yet today? "Day ain't over yet!"
[:D][:D]
Or how about City Slickers -- Curly -- "I crap bigger than you" [:0].
Don't have suicidal tendencies but after seeing the movie alway's thought I'd like to face off with a Grizz, eyeball to eyeball, one on one....him with his claws, myself with a handgun. Just to see if I'd pee my pants or successfully kill the beast.
"Them *'s would just as soon slit you from crotch to eyeball with a dull deer antler than look at ya....." (Del Rue to Jeremiah Johnson)
Don't have suicidal tendencies but after seeing the movie alway's thought I'd like to face off with a Grizz, eyeball to eyeball, one on one....him with his claws, myself with a handgun. Just to see if I'd pee my pants or successfully kill the beast.
or be lunch.
Was a pretty good "survival mode" movie....
Wait, I thought Richard Harris was a man nemed horse, now you say glass was his name? I get so confused, we drive in parkways and park in driveways.
He's also Dumbledore.....[:D]
Redford is about 5'5" ("officially" 5'10") Hard to imagine him skinning griz. Based on the book of the same name by Vardis Fischer, a highly fictionalized version of the life of John Johnston, who lived much later than the actual mountainman era (1824-1840) and died in an old folks home in Burbank, CA.
Will Geer is way cool as Bearclaw Chris Lapp.
Not to highjack, but I like "A river runs through it," which he produced and Directed, even better. Not sure which I have seen more times.
Lest we forget Simon Butler, who walked into the wilderness about 6'5" and 160 lbs and walked out 6'3" and 285 lbs.
It ain't the size of the dog in the fight, hedog, it's about the size of the fight in the dog.
His first night with his new Indian wife, he discovered that she spoke no English, and he spoke no Flathead.
He taught her to say the word "yes".
Then he points to himself and says, "Fine figure of a man"?
He points at her, she replies, "Yes".
He points to himself and says, "A mighty hunter"?
He points at her, she replies, "Yes".
Jeremian Johnson says, "That is all the English you need to know".
I saw that film in 1973, and ever since then I have been looking for a woman like that.
The origin of this great film is interesting. Redford teamed up with his buddy Sidney Pollack to make this film. Pollack is an urban kind of guy, he directed "The Way We Were" and "Tootsie", among many others. He played Dustin Hoffman's agent in "Tootsie".
Anyway, they are both city boys, Redford as noted, is liberal and I imagine Pollack is also.
Somehow, these two got the idea of making a mountain man movie. They made the film in 1969, with Pollack directing, but they couldn't get anybody to release it. The Hollywood bigwigs said, they wanted a western with a good guy and a bad guy, but in this movie you had Indians murdering Johnson's innocent wife and child, then you had Johnson murdering Indians who had nothing to do with the death of his family. Johnson was White but was married to an Indian, everything was mixed up. The movie did not end with a good guy holding a smoking rifle while standing over the body of the bad guy, so Hollywood did not know what to do with this film.
It sat on the shelf for 4 years before it was released.
'Man in the Wilderness' is based on the true story of a mountain man named Hugh Glass. He was attacked by a 'Griz' and left for dead by the party he was with. The novel 'Lord Grizzly' by Frederick Manfred is a reasonably accurate account of his ordeal.
One of the guys that abandoned Glass to die was a feller name a Jim Bridger. Later well known as a famous Mountain man. Guess he lived it down.
Allen
Clouder..
One of the guys that abandoned Glass to die was a feller name a Jim Bridger. Later well known as a famous Mountain man. Guess he lived it down.
Allen
I recall reading an account of Glass's story. It stated that after he made it back, he went hunting for the two men who'd been assigned to look after him. He killed the older one, but let Bridger go, allowing for his youth and inexperience.