Jeremiah Johnson (film)

Jeremiah Johnson is a 1972 western film directed by Sydney Pollack and starring Robert Redford as the title character and Will Geer as Bear Claw Chris Lapp. The film has been said to have been based in part on the life of the legendary mountain man LiverEating Johnson, based on Raymond Thorp and Robert Bunkers book Crow Killer The Saga of LiverEating Johnson and Vardis Fishers Mountain Man.

A jaded veteran of the Mexican War 184648, Jeremiah Johnson Robert Redford seeks solace and refuge in the West. He aims to take up the life of a mountain man, supporting himself in the Rocky Mountains as a trapper. His first winter in the mountain country is a difficult one he has a brief runin with PaintsHisShirtRed Joaquin Martinez, a chief of the Crow tribe, who observes a starving Johnson futilely fishing by hand.Initially, Johnson uses a .30 caliber Hawken rifle for hunting and protection, but finds it underpowered for his needs. He stumbles on the frozen body of Hatchet Jack another mountain man, clutching a .50 caliber Hawken in his dead hands. Jacks legs were broken while fighting a bear, and knowing he was going to die, Jack wrote a will giving his rifle to the first man who came across his corpse. Johnson gladly takes it for his own. He then inadvertently disrupts the grizzly bear hunt of the elderly and eccentric Bear Claw Chris Lapp Will Geer. After meeting at gunpoint I know who you are youre the same dumb pilgrim Ive been hearin for twenty days and smellin for three, Lapp takes him in and mentors him on living in the high country. After a brush with Crow Indians, including PaintsHisShirtRed a friend of Lapps, and learning the skills required to survive in the mountains, Johnson sets off on his own. ........

Source: Wikipedia