Ballistic Magazine
  • Guns
    • Handguns
    • Rifles
    • Class III & More
  • Gear
    • Accessories
    • Ammo
    • Knives
    • Suppressors
  • News
  • Lifestyle
    • Culture
    • People
    • Podcasts
    • Rides
    • Survival
    • Tactics & Training
  • VIDEOS
  • Subscribe
No Result
View All Result
Ballistic Magazine
  • Guns
    • Handguns
    • Rifles
    • Class III & More
  • Gear
    • Accessories
    • Ammo
    • Knives
    • Suppressors
  • News
  • Lifestyle
    • Culture
    • People
    • Podcasts
    • Rides
    • Survival
    • Tactics & Training
  • VIDEOS
  • Subscribe
No Result
View All Result
Ballistic Magazine
No Result
View All Result
 
Enter to WIN Christensen Arms Modern Hunting Rifle in FREE GUN FRIDAY!

Jeremiah Johnson Quotes: The Immortal Lines That Made a Movie Classic

Lamar Underwood by Lamar Underwood
October 15, 2021
in Culture, Lifestyle
0
Robert Redford in Jeremiah Johnson.
0
SHARES
4.6k
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

In the movie Sunset Boulevard the aging movie star Norma Desmond laments, “We didn’t need voices then; we had faces.” She is talking about the era of silent films, some of which are still remembered today, but are not destined to return. The “talkies”—movies with dialogue—are here to stay.

B83M2T Jeremiah Johnson Year: 1972 - USA Robert Redford Director: Sydney Pollack. Image shot 1972. Exact date unknown.
RELATED STORY

Jeremiah Johnson Turns 50: Revisiting the Definitive Mountain Man Movie

Jeremiah Johnson Quotes

Today it is hard to imagine a movie like Jeremiah Johnson without sound. Released 50 years ago, the Robert Redford film is a DVD and internet staple today with a stirring musical soundtrack and mountain men characters who “talk the talk” as never heard before.

 The movie begins with Redford as Jeremiah arriving at a frontier settlement and speaking voiceover dialogue: “Nobody knows wherebouts he come from, and it doesn’t seem to matter much.” Followed by: “He was a young man, and ghosty stories about the tall hills didn’t scare him none.”

He picks out a rifle: “He wanted a .50 caliber. He settled for a .30 but damn it was a genuine Hawken.  You couldn’t go no better.”

As he is about to leave, with the horse packed with “all the truck that went with being a mountain man,” the voiceover dialogue ends and the store proprietor gives Jeremiah advice on where to start his trapping activities. His advice is worth just what Jeremiah paid for it—nothing. But it does make a memorable movie line. “Ride due west as the sun sets. Turn left at the Rocky Mountains.”

Trials & Tribulations

As Jeremiah and his pack horse move into the mountain vastness, his lack of skills and knowledge start taking a serious toll. He has been lucky that Indians have not found and attacked him. But the cold and snow are formidable enemies. Then he meets Bear Claw. The elderly mountain man icon resents Johnson at first but then makes Jeremiah a student of real mountain man ways.

Good dialogue from Bear Claw makes the process vivid in a succession of scenes, starting with their meeting.

“I am Bear Claw Chris Lapp, blood kin to the grizzly that bit Jim Bridger’s ass. And you are molesting my hunt.”

“I’ve been hearing you for 20 days and smelling you for three.”

“How come you ain’t been scalped?”

 Bear Claw shows Jeremiah his cabin and tells him, “Go in, get warm, get yourself something to eat.”

 When Bear Claw asks, “Now. boy. You sure you can skin griz?” Johnson answers, “Just as fast as you can find ‘em.” That brings Bear Claw’s, “You sure are cocky for a starving pilgrim.” Later, he adds, “You’ve got some learning to do.”

Mountain Men & Women

Bear Claw continues to have some of the best scenes in the movie, as these dialogue gems show when Johnson asks: “Ever get lonesome?”

“For what?” Bear Claw asks, surprised.

“A woman.”

“A full-time night woman? I packed me a squaw for 10 years. Meanest bitch that ever bawled for beads. I lodge-poled her to Dead Wolf Creek and traded her for a Hawken gun. Now don’t get me wrong. I love the women. I surely do, but a woman’s breast is the hardest rock the almighty placed on this earth, and I can find no sign on it.”

As Johnson, his schooling finished, is about to ride away. Bear Claw says, “Watch your top-knot.”

“Watch your’n,” Jeremiah replies.

BP87DA SCENE WITH ROBERT REDFORD JEREMIAH JOHNSON (1972)
(Photo by Alamy Photos)

Most of Johnson’s further adventures are with an Indian girl who doesn’t speak English and an orphaned boy who doesn’t speak at all. There is some dialogue in the middle of the movie, however, after Johnson runs across an interesting mountain man, Del Gue, whose hairless head shines like a billiard ball.

Gue tells him: “A scalp like mine ain’t fit for no warrior’s lodge pole.”

Fighting to Survive

Johnson’s adventures take him into months of fighting Crow warriors to avenge the Indian atrocities that happened to him after he left Bear Claw. Beside a small campfire where he is hunched over, looking tired and beaten, Johnson sees Bear Claw for the first time since he left him alone, many months before.

“What’s on the spit?” Bear Claw calls.

“Growing particular?” Johnson asks as he pulls off a rabbit leg for Bear Claw.

 “Not about feeding. Only the company I keep.”

Johnson seems pensive, withdrawn. Suddenly he asks, “Would you happen to know what month this is? March? April?”

“No. I truly wouldn’t. March maybe,” answers Bear Claw. “I doubt April.” In a moment, he adds: “Winter’s a long time going, huh. Stays long this high.”

As Bear Claw starts to leave, his voice returns to the good-natured spirit of the earlier times with Johnson, his dialogue still suggesting things he has learned and wants to share with Jeremiah.

“March is a green muddy month down below. Some folks like it. Farmers mostly.”

Then, before turning to ride away, Bear Claw says, “You’ve done well to keep so much hair when so manys after it. I hope you will fare well.”

The Call of the Mountain

Not wanting to be around for the next Indian attack, Bear Claw leaves Johnson alone. The mountain man mantra Jeremiah longed to achieve has left him bitter and wounded, unknowing and uncaring about what will happen to him next.

The best dialogue lines in the movie describing the mountain man code were earlier in the film, from Del Gue as he left Jeremiah to go north on his own. Del Gue had regrown his hair then, and it waved in the breeze as he turned in the saddle and said:

“Ain’t this somethin’? I told my pap and mam I was going to be a mountain man. Acted like they was gut-shot. Make your life go here, son. Here’s where the peoples is. Them mountains is for Indians and wild men. Mother Gue, I says, ‘the Rocky Mountains is the marrow of the world,’ and by God, I was right.”

He turns his horse, leaving, then shouts over his shoulder, “I ain’t never seen ‘em, but my common sense tells me the Andes is foothills, and the Alps is for children to climb!…These here is God’s finest sculpturings! And there ain’t no laws for the brave ones! And there ain’t no asylums for the crazy ones!” He continues: “And there ain’t no churches except for this right here! And there ain’t no priests excepting the birds! By God, I are a mountain man, and I’ll live ‘til an arrow or a bullet finds me!”

Those lines from 50 years ago still work today in telling us what was on the minds of those early trappers among mountains that swallowed them. Men like Jeremiah Johnson.

For more coverage of mountain men, Jeremiah Johnson and more, check out the Fall 2021 issue of American Frontiersman. Get your copy now at outdoorgroupstore.com.

Didn't find what you were looking for?

CLICK HERE FOR COMMENTS

RELATED POSTS

The Summer 2022 issue of American Frontiersman.

American Frontiersman Summer 2022: Coming in Hot, Loaded for Bear!

The Winchester 88, introduced in 1955, was handsomely embellished with a hand-checkered diamond pattern stock and forend. The first models were chambered in .308 Winchester, the caliber in which most Model 88s are found today.

Winchester Model 88: Rare, Valuable & Still Used in the Deer Woods

Jeremiah Johnson director Sydney Pollack.

Sydney Pollack: The Man Who Called Action on Jeremiah Johnson

The story how Jeremiah Johnson went from page to screen.

How Jeremiah Johnson Turned From Pulp to Cinematic Legend

Load More

WATCH NOW: Night Shooter | Season 2

Discussion about this post

FEATURED POST

Ballistic's Best Reader's Choice Winners

Winners Announced: Ballistic’s Best Readers’ Choice 2022

The votes are in! We've counted the ballots, and we're excited and impressed by you, the...

Read more

TRENDING

7 new products announced ahead of shot show 2023.

New Guns & Gear Launched at SHOT Show 2023

We tested 12 compact and micro compact pistols to determine the best carry gun.

Best Concealed Carry Pistols 2022: Compacts & Micros Dominate

Affordable Precision Rifles 2018

19 Affordable Precision Rifles That Won’t Break the Bank

A top-quality chassis gives you adjustability and other features you need to make your long-range shooting more accurate and fun. These 7 top rifle chassis do it with class.

7 Top Rifle Chassis That Add Class & Accuracy to Your Long-Range Shoot

PICK A CATEGORY

TRAINING & TACTICS SPOTLIGHT

Follow this gift guide for Valentine's Day for Gun Enthusiasts.

GIFT GUIDE: Valentine’s Day Gifts for Gun Enthusiasts

Aw, Valentine's Day. Chocolates and Cupid with his little bow. Yeah, no thanks. For some of us, this holiday after...

SHOWCASE: TRAINING AND TACTICS

Clearing Corners Gunsite Academy lead

10 Key Tips to Clearing Corners That May Save Your Ass

Chris Hemsworth learns box breathing and other challenges in Limitless.

Use Box Breathing Like Chris Hemsworth to Calm Down & Make The Shot

zeroing in rifles and pistols

Zeroing Rifles & Pistols: Getting to & Maintaining Zeroed Sights

European Mount, DIY Euro Mount, Hunting, lead

How to Make a European Mount in 6 Steps

Team SIG Sauer's Lena Miculek fires a P365 and debates .380 vs 9mm.

VIDEO: SIG Sauer’s Lena Miculek Debates .380 Vs 9mm for Defense

Cross-Eye Dominant Shooting, pistol

The Guide to Cross-Eye Dominant Shooting

Follow this guide to better shooting on the move.

SHOOTING 101: 3 Keys to Getting Hits While Shooting on the Move

Understanding eye dominance and both eyes open shooting will help you get on target.

VIDEO: Understanding Eye Dominance for Better Accuracy & Speed

AMMO SPOTLIGHT

Hornady Subsonic 7.62x39 launches a 255-grain bullet.

Hornady Subsonic 7.62×39 Ammunition Launches 255-grain Bullet, Quietly!

Hornady just announced the release of a very interesting new load, one we think hunters will jump all over....

site logo
The Premier Firearms & Survival Magazine

Tactical

  • tactical-life.com

Magazines

  • Tactical Life
  • The Complete Book of Reloading
  • Guns of the Old West

Facebook

  • Tactical-Life Facebook
  • Guns of the Old West Facebook

Twitter

  • Tactical-Life Twitter

Self Defense

  • PersonalDefenseWorld.com

Magazines

  • Personal Defense World
  • Combat Handguns

Facebook

  • Personal Defense World Facebook
  • Combat Handguns

Twitter

  • Personal Defense World Twitter

Shooting Lifestyle

  • BallisticMag.com

Magazines

  • Ballistic Magazine

Facebook

  • Ballistic Magazine Facebook

Twitter

  • Ballistic Magazine Twitter

Alpha Lifestyle

  • SkillsetMag.com

Magazines

  • Skillset

Facebook

  • Skillset Magazine Facebook

Twitter

  • Skillset Magazine Twitter

Instagram

  • Skillset Magazine Instagram
  • Contact
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe
  • Terms Of Use
  • Privacy Policy
  • California Privacy Notice
  • Cookie Policy
© Athlon Outdoors, All Rights Reserved.
You use of this website constitutes and manifests your acceptance of our User Agreement, Privacy Policy, Cookie Policy, and awareness of the California Privacy Rights. Pursuant to U.S. Copyright law, as well as other applicable federal and state laws, the content on this website may not be reproduced, distributed, displayed, transmitted, cached, or otherwise used, without the prior, express, and written permission of Athlon Outdoors.

Manage your GDPR consents by clicking here. Manage your CCPA consents by clicking here.
No Result
View All Result
  • Guns
    • View All Guns
    • Handguns
    • Rifles
    • Class III & More
    • Sponsored
      • SIG Sauer
  • Gear
    • View All Gear
    • Accessories
    • Ammo
    • Knives
    • Suppressors
  • Videos
  • More
    • Free Gun Friday Sweeps
    • Sweepstakes
    • Subscribe
    • Contact Us
  • News
  • Lifestyle
    • View All Lifestyle
    • Tactics & Training
    • Survival
    • People
    • Podcasts
    • Rides

© 2023 JNews - Premium WordPress news & magazine theme by Jegtheme.