Mini movie review: Jeremiah Johnson

Jeremiah Johnson was on AMC the other night and since we're practically Robert Redford's neighbors (not really, but his Sundance Resort is only 40 minutes away and we've hiked all over where JJ was filmed in 1972), we thought we should check it out.  A young and handsome (tho' buried in a hideous red beard) Redford is the title fellow, a former Civil War solder who is looking to live a hermit's life in the Rocky Mountains.  Trouble is, he doesn't really have any mountain man skills and flounders around (he should have died of hypothermia on the first day) until a real mountain man, played by The Waltons' Will Geer, takes him under his wing and teaches him a few tricks.  Then Jeremiah heads into the wilderness, picking up an orphaned boy and a Native American wife along the way.  Then he helps the Army to rescue some stranded settlers and brings the wrath of the local Crow tribe down upon his head.  Then he turns into a kickass Indian fighter.

There's really not much in the way of plot in this movie - it's more of a narrative flow of this happened, then this happened, then this happened.  And Mr. Mouse and I can't decide if Redford ever was a good actor: he's either not in this movie, or he's playing Jeremiah as sort of a lump.  Still, the locations are gorgeous and it was fun to recognize mountains that we've climbed looming up in the background.