Columnist John Moore has never attempted to rough it in the mountains like Jeremiah Johnson did, but John has taken a picture of the mountains from inside the comfort of a tour bus. Courtesy John Moore

Robert Redford was a movie star. At a time when movie stars deserved the title.

 Unlike most celebrities today, who pollute their brand with their ideologies, Redford was tepid in that area. He was obviously left of center; as is evident in the roles he chose later in movies such as The Milagro Beanfield War and The Legend of Bagger Vance.

 But with the same wisdom Johnny Carson also possessed, Redford was wise enough to focus more on selling movie tickets than on making his own, constant political statements.

 Smart.

 I have my political persuasions, and you have yours, but to alienate others by pushing either serves little purpose other than to have fewer friends.

 When I was growing up, we were taught to never discuss politics or religion outside of the family.

 My mother’s father used to often say, “What most fellas need is a good lettin’ alone.” Another way of saying, “Mind your own business.”

 When Redford died at age 89, my mind went back to Williams Theater in Ashdown, Arkansas. There, I saw Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Jeremiah Johnson, and The Sting. All either historical, or historically believable films that made the audience feel a part of the movie.

 That was the beauty of Redford. He was born at just the right time. His roles were meaningful, and he was pretty darn good in almost all of them.

 Of all his movies, Jeremiah Johnson had the biggest impact on me. As a ten-year-old kid, I still had a great sense of adventure. The idea of traipsing off into the mountains to live off the land seemed appealing. For Jeremiah Johnson, it was appealing enough that he actually did it.

 In the movie, Johnson is portrayed as war-weary from the battle the U.S. was waging with Mexico in the mid-19th Century. So, he leaves, buys gear, and heads into the Rockies to become a mountain man.

 Naively, he quickly finds out, with the help of the old man played by Will Gere, that knowing less than what you need to know can quickly get you killed. Something my father taught me as well.

 Throughout the movie, Jeremiah learns a lot about a lot of things, finds love, loses love, makes friends with some, and finds war with others.

 The perfect analogy for life, regardless of when you live.

 Jeremiah Johnson wasn’t just a character in a film; he was a real man. How Redford portrayed Johnson was based on a book about Jeremiah’s life. The movie wasn’t completely accurate, but it is a great film.

 Many liberties were taken, including how Jeremiah got his wife, and the fact that the adopted boy in the movie represented his own unborn child, who was killed along with Johnson’s wife by Indians.

 The film made it appear that Johnson just fought in a war and then lived and died in the mountains. Not so.

 Jeremiah Johnson was born as John Garrison in the 1820s in New Jersey. Some online searching revealed that many men in his day changed their name and or headed to the frontier if they were dodging the law, creditors, or leaving other problems behind.

 Jeremiah joined the navy in the 1840s and served on a ship. After the navy, he became part of the California Gold Rush. Later, after his time in the mountains, he served as a scout and hunter in Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho. 

 Johnson was in the Union Army during the Civil War. After the war, he went back to being a guide and then served as a lawman. He also worked as a guide for railroads and for settlements on the frontier.

 Remarkably, Jeremiah Johnson lived a long life – especially for his time. In his later years, his health declined and he sought care at a veterans facility in Santa Monica, California. He died in there in 1900 at either age 75 or 76.

 Jeremiah asked to be buried in the mountains that would later make him famous. He was buried in a Los Angeles-area veterans cemetery instead.

 Redford’s portrayal of him in 1972 launched an effort to move Johnson’s remains to where Jeremiah wanted to be. An effort of interested parties came together to make that happen.

 In 1974, Jeremiah Johnson was exhumed and moved to Cody, Wyoming, and reburied in Old Trail Town, which is a historical site that preserves frontier buildings and artifacts.

 One of the attendees and pallbearers was Robert Redford.

 Robert Redford lived about 15 years longer than Jeremiah Johnson. But they both lived long and interesting lives. And it is safe to say that both men’s life choices showed us how many possibilities we each have in life.

 Especially if we can all just get a good, lettin’ alone.

By John Moore, author, Puns for Groan People and Write of Passage: A Southerner’s View of Then and Now Vol. 1 and 2, are available on his website TheCountryWriter.com, where you can also send him a message.

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