In his scything critique of the film, one of our more learned members known as "Cine6fr" (http://us.imdb.com/CommentsAuthor?511647) rightly pointed out that the film had "something to do with Frederick Jackson Turner's frontier thesis". But alas, the stereotypical nature of the characters kept him from appreciating the film. Hopefully the poor fellow learned a bit more about the frontier and film theory as time went on and realized the beauty of this film. Sydney Pollack's framing and editing is fantastic. The story communicates both the ethos of the "mountain man", and the American concept of the frontier in its totality. While the characters show some degree of humanity, ultimately the film chronicles the migration of "civilization" across the frontier and all the things it destroyed along the way. From wild life, to entire ways of life, Jeremiah's odyssey captures the twilight of a brief period in U.S. history.
Review of Jeremiah Johnson
