Jeremiah Johnson

Half a century later, it's still the best mountain man movie ever made.

- Henry C. Parke

Long before there was a grid to live off of, there were mountain men, and one of the most legendary was Jeremiah Johnson. When his Flathead wife was slain by a Crow brave, Johnson went on a vengeance spree, some claim killing and scalping as many as 300 Crows. And inspired by the Crow belief that the liver was necessary to enter the afterlife, he soon earned the sobriquet of Liver-Eating Johnson.

Originally intended for Lee Marvin, then Clint Eastwood, John Milius's script landed at Robert Redford's Wildwood Films at precisely the right moment: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid had proven Redford was a leading man and a convincing Westerner. And director Sydney Pollack had proven with The Scalphunters that he could direct powerful Westerns, on time and on budget. Although two other writers would later work on the script, nearly all of the important dialogue and scenes came from Milius's original draft.

With Warner Brothers on board, Redford was floored to learn that Pollack had agreed to shoot not in Utah, Redford's and Johnson's home, but in Spain, plus the Warner's backlot. Redford refused, and refused Lake Arrowhead, threatening to become "ill" if necessary. When the studio insisted they couldn't make the film in Utah for the $4 million budget, Redford guaranteed that he and Pollack would make up for any overages-a complete shock to Pollack. Happily, it came in on time and under budget.