Jeremiah Johnson **** (1972, Robert Redford, Will Geer, Allyn Ann McLerie, Josh Albee, Stefan Gierasch, Charles Tyner) – Classic Movie Review 4991

Director Sydney Pollack’s manly 1972 mountain man movie Jeremiah Johnson is a remarkable outside adventure. It stars Robert Redford as the titular Jeremiah Johnson, who goes from naïve trapper to hardened mountain-dweller and on to legendary status.

Pollack tells his outdoor wilderness survival tale of Utah in the 1850s in a spectacular visually epic way. He relishes his striking location settings in the cinematography of Duke Callaghan, and takes delight in exploring his man-myth main character. Redford provides one of his most genuine and expertly realised performances.

John Milius’s and Edward Anhalt’s screenplay is full of intriguing offbeat ingredients, like a frozen corpse, a chasing grizzly bear, and Will Geer’s grouchy loner character Bear Claw, and it makes appealing grand, romantic gestures.

Allyn Ann McLerie (1926–2018).

Also in the cast are Allyn Ann McLerie as Crazy Woman, Josh Albee, Stefan Gierasch, Charles Tyner, Joachin Martinez, Paul Benedict, Jack Colvin, Matt Clark and Delle Bolton.

It is one of seven movies Pollack and Redford made together, also including This Property Is Condemned, The Way We Were, Three Days of the Condor, The Electric Horseman, Out of Africa and Havana.

Jeremiah Johnson runs 108 minutes and 116 minutes in the long version.

Despite persistent bad weather, the production was still brought in on time and on budget.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 4991

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com