Jeremiah Johnson (1972)

Director:

Sydney Pollack

Writers:

Vardis Fisher (novel)
Raymond W. Thorp (story) ...
(more)

Release Date:

10 September 1972 (Sweden)

Genre:

Drama | Western

Tagline:

A man of peace driven wild!

Plot:

A mountain man who wishes to live the life of a hermit becomes the unwilling object of a long vendetta...

Plot Keywords:

Mountain | Trapper | Mountain Man | Rocky Mountains | Hermit

Awards:

1 win & 1 nomination

Cast

Robert Redford	...	Jeremiah Johnson
Will Geer	...	Bear Claw
Delle Bolton	...	Swan
Josh Albee	...	Caleb
Joaquín Martínez	...	Paints His Shirt Red (as Joaquin Martinez)
Allyn Ann McLerie	...	Crazy Woman
Stefan Gierasch	...	Del Gue
Richard Angarola	...	Chief Two-Tongues Lebeaux
Paul Benedict	...	Reverend Lindquist
Charles Tyner	...	Robidoux
Jack Colvin	...	Lieutenant Mulvey
Matt Clark	...	Qualen
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Tanya Tucker	...	Qualen's daughter (uncredited)

Directed by
Sydney Pollack

Writing credits
Vardis Fisher		(novel "Mountain Man")
Raymond W. Thorp		(story "Crow Killer") and
Robert Bunker		(story "Crow Killer")
John Milius		(screenplay) and
Edward Anhalt		(screenplay)
David Rayfiel		uncredited

Produced by
John R. Coonan	....	associate producer
Mike Moder	....	associate producer
Joe Wizan	....	producer

Original Music by
Tim McIntire
John Rubinstein

Cinematography by
Duke Callaghan		(director of photography)

Film Editing by
Thomas Stanford

Casting by
Lynn Stalmaster

Art Direction by
Ted Haworth

Set Decoration by
Ray Molyneaux		(as Raymond Molyneaux)

Costume Design by
Wesley Jeffries		(uncredited)

Makeup Department
Ken Chase	....	makeup artist
Lynn Del Kail	....	hair stylist
Gary Liddiard	....	makeup artist

Production Management
John R. Coonan	....	production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Mike Moder	....	assistant director
Mike Moder	....	second unit director

Art Department
Alan Levine	....	property master (as Allan Levine)

Sound Department
Michael Colgan	....	sound effects (as Mike Colgan)
Josef von Stroheim	....	sound effects
Charles M. Wilborn	....	sound (as Charles Wilborn)
Dan Wallin	....	sound re-recording mixer (uncredited)

Stunts
Joe Canutt	....	stunts (uncredited)
Dean Smith	....	stunt double (uncredited)

Camera and Electrical Department
Joseph Edesa	....	gaffer (as Joe Edesa)
Ray De La Motte	....	first assistant camera (uncredited)

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Bernie Pollack	....	costume supervisor (uncredited)

Editorial Department
Don Guidice	....	assistant editor
Carol Ann Jackson	....	assistant editor (as Carol Jackson)

Music Department
Dan Wallin	....	scoring mixer (uncredited)

Transportation Department
Frank 'Cat' Ballou	....	transportation coordinator (uncredited)

Other crew
John Arlee	....	technical advisor
Kenneth Lee	....	livestock supervisor
Phill Norman	....	title designer
Douglas W. Randall	....	photo double (uncredited)
Ruth West	....	auditor (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Sanford Productions (III)
• Warner Bros. Pictures

Distributors

• Warner Bros. Pictures (1972) (USA) (theatrical)
• Warner-Columbia Filmverleih (1972) (West Germany) (theatrical)
• Warner Bros. (1972) (France) (theatrical)
• National Broadcasting Company (NBC) (1976) (USA) (TV) (original airing)
• Warner Home Video (2001) (Germany) (VHS)
• Warner Home Video (2006) (Germany) (DVD)
• Warner Home Video (1997) (USA) (DVD)
• Warner Home Video (2006) (USA) (DVD)
• Warner Home Video (USA) (laserdisc)
• Warner Home Vídeo (Brazil) (DVD)
• Warner Home Vídeo (Brazil) (VHS)

Other Companies

• Cinemobile System  location services (as Cinemobile Systems)
• Opticals West/N.J.S.  opticals (as Opticals West - N.S.S.)
• U.S. Department of Interior  appreciation
• National Park Service, The  appreciation
• Bureau of Land Management  appreciation
• Chapman/Leonard Studio Equipment  camera cranes

Also Known As:

Crow Killer (USA) (working title)
Liver Eatin' Johnson (USA) (original script title)

Runtime:

108 min | 116 min (long version)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.20 : 1

Sound Mix:

70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints) | Mono (35 mm prints) | Dolby Digital

Certification:

UK:PG | West Germany:12 (f) | Germany:12 (DVD premiere) | Finland:K-16 | Norway:16 | Sweden:15 | USA:PG | Canada:PG

Filming Locations:

Alpine Loop, Utah, USA

Company:

Sanford Productions (III)

Trivia:

Based upon a real-life trapper named John Johnston, nicknamed "Crow Killer" and "Liver Eater Johnston" for his penchant for cutting out and eating the livers of Crow Indians he had killed (several Crows had murdered his wife and he swore vengeance against the entire tribe).

Goofs:

Continuity: Del Gue buried in the sand is at first soaked with perspiration. A minute later his head is almost dry.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Narrator: His name was Jeremiah Johnson, and they say he wanted to be a mountain man. The story goes that he was a man of proper wit and adventurous spirit, suited to the mountains. Nobody knows whereabouts he come from and don't seem to matter much. He was a young man and ghosty stories about the tall hills didn't scare him none...

Movie Connections:

Referenced in A Decade Under the Influence (2003)

In shooting his character as a solitary figure against a field of white, Pollack turned Johnson into something bordering on a spiritual experience…

Filmed in the snow-covered vastness of the Utah Rocky Mountains, Robert Redford plays well a deserter from the Mexican War who wages a bitter struggle against the elements and Indians in order to lead a life of solitude…

He heads into the mountains, only to find that there is the wind that never seems to stop… Sometimes he swears he is going insane while the storms that he has never seen screech booming with their thunder… Around him, snow squalls that kill everything that is unprepared… Jeremiah's first winter proves almost fatal because of his inexperience in coping with the harsh Rockies… Fortunately, he meets a real mountain man seasoned to the ways of the wild… Bear Claw takes Johnson in and shares his knowledge with him…

Travelling the untamed wilderness, Jeremiah finds out that it is a land fit only for the savages, and he has seen what they are like… But he has seen worse when he happens upon an Indian massacre of a settler's family or upon a bald man buried to his neck in sand by Blackfeet Indians… And much worse after violating the Crow sacred burial ground while helping cavalry men find some lost settlers…