Jeremiah Johnson

Redford’s second (after This Property Is Condemned) of seven collaborations with director Sydney Pollack offers one of his most commanding performances, as a 19th-century mountain man seeking solitude in the Rockies after the Mexican War. The peaceable Johnson finds himself pitted against hostile Native Americans, rival trappers, and unforgiving winters. Originally conceived as a Sam Peckinpah–Clint Eastwood vehicle, the project appealed to outdoorsman Redford, who performed his own stunts and scouted locations in his real-life Utah backyard—some of which had only been traversed by frontiersmen. Co-written by John Milius (Apocalypse Now), and featuring a scene-stealing turn by Will Geer as a hermit.