Jeremiah Johnson (PG)

An impossibly handsome (and eventually rugged) Robert Redford stars as the man, the myth, the legend, Jeremiah Johnson.

He is a disillusioned Mexican-American War veteran, heading to the mountains to live in isolation. Woefully unequipped for the task at hand, Johnson is fortunate to come across a seasoned mountain man (Will Geer) willing to teach him the necessary survival tactics. As life continues in the mountains, Johnson finds himself a native bride (Delle Bolton) and an adopted son (Josh Albee). However, their peaceful existence is threatened when Johnson incurs the ire of the Crow Indians.

Johnson faces hardship, revenge, and legendary status as he goes from naive city-dweller to hardened frontiersman, ultimately achieving a coexistence with nature and even his enemies through acts of both violence and peace.

Shot on location in fantastically beautiful, desolate snowscapes in Utah, Sydney Pollack’s sweeping epic is a marvel to behold. It is not only about a man being transformed into a myth, but is also explicitly about the ecology of the wilderness, with lots of reverence for plant and animal life, Indian rituals and the changing seasons.