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Jeremiah Johnson Customer Reviews (4 - 6 of 29 Reviews)

Imagining memories.
This story gives me the chance to get back to nature the way it was when the free trappers still roamed the west. My whole family loves watching it time and again.

Jeremiah Johnson on Manifest Destiny
"Jeremiah Johnson" is a film about a mountain man; it is also a film about a man who is dissatisfied with civilization and tries to escape it by "getting back to nature." Because the protagonist of the story is trying to get away from civilization, we can infer that there is an implied critique of American expansion and what is now often referred to negatively as the concept of Manifest Destiny. Typically, the negative connotation of Manifest Destiny centers on the displacement of Native American groups and the Nineteenth century preoccupation with expansion that came at the expense of Mexico following the Mexican-American War. Along with these grand and epic themes of nineteenth century American history (expansion, Manifest Destiny, the advance of civilization, Native Americans and their displacement, Industrialization, etc.), there is also the theme of a man in search of self-knowledge, a theme--like the grand themes just mentioned--that is also important in American history and is usually presented in stories as the search for the freedom and liberty necessary to gain self-knowledge or at least self-expression. While all of these themes are present in Jeremiah Johnson, there are alternative ways of looking at the film that might help us to analyze and evaluate these ideas from a broader perspective, and hopefully, therefore, come to a more complete understanding of what the film can teach us about American history.
Perhaps the most important alternative we can pursue is to analyze and evaluate the way in which Manifest Destiny is negatively represented in the film, and, in general, by most Americans today. Now, Manifest Destiny as believed by Americans in the 1800's was not simply the concept that America should expand and cover the continent from coast to coast, but also that the democratic system is the best system of government and it should be available to other people. This is a belief most Americans still have today. Americans believe this today for the same reason Americans in the 1800's believed it: because both(contemporary and past Americans) were or are products of Enlightenment political philosophy, which taught that all human beings have the natural and inalienable right to life and liberty, and that we should do our best to help others achieve liberty. Americans in the 1800's thought the best way to help others gain liberty was to make them part of America, thereby extending the benefits of the American dream to them.
Today most people in the West think along the same lines. Westerners still believe they ought to extend democracy and liberty; now, however, they do this without necessarily making those to whom liberty and democracy is extended part of the fatherland (but we do make them part of the global market economy so that we can trade with them). Does this make contemporary efforts to extend democracy more noble and legitimate than the efforts carried out in the name of Manifest Destiny simply because it is not now called Manifest Destiny but rather is called the spread of human rights? Both sides of the political spectrum in the United States, Democrats and Republicans (as well as the international community as represented by the United Nations), agree that democracy should be encouraged the world over; so it is not an issue of which party we choose to support. Differently stated, almost everyone agrees that we should promote democracy; the argument is only over how it is to be promoted.
This is pretty much the way Americans in the 1800's looked at the issue too. This being the case, perhaps we should not look so negatively at nineteenth century Americans who supported Manifest Destiny-as many present day academics tell us we should-without looking at ourselves and our own reasons for wanting to extend the "blessings of liberty." By doing this we may find that Manifest Destiny was not as bad as some would like us to believe; for if it was bad in all respects, we would be forced to conclude that extending democracy and liberty was bad too. This is not something very many people are willing to do, especially those who now criticize Manifest Destiny, for such criticism is usually made in the name of democracy and liberty.
Another way to look at Jeremiah Johnson is to view it as a film about a search or a quest for self-knowledge. Jeremiah becomes a mountain man because he is dissatisfied with modern Western civilization. Apparently Jeremiah hopes to find satisfaction in a life of solitude; however, he finds that he cannot remain in absolute solitude, and he also finds that he has even more trouble with non-Western people (i.e. Indians) than he had with Westerners. Ultimately, Jeremiah never finds the satisfaction or contentment he is looking for. He seems to finally enter into an uneasy peace with the Indians, but there is no indication that he fulfills the desire for contentment and self-knowledge that made him a legend.
My suggestion is that Jeremiah never attains self-knowledge because he never penetrates beneath a surface level of understanding of what it means to be a human. Like many modern Westerners who are products of the Enlightenment, Jeremiah seems unable to accept the fact that man as a social animal is simply incapable of perfection. He mentions a couple of times that things "ought to have been different." Just what he means by "different" we do not know. Had Jeremiah received a good education and familiarized himself with, say, the writings of Homer, he would have learned that almost all humans have many irrational tendencies. Odysseus, who also journeyed in search of a way home (and what else is Jeremiah looking for but a home?), learned that he had to be quite wily if not dishonest when dealing with less than noble characters. Jeremiah either refuses to accept this or is incapable of understanding it. If Jeremiah was unable to gain self-knowledge because he was simply incapable of reaching such levels of intellection, it was probably the result of an overabundance of physical courage combined with a lack of wisdom and moderation. Courage without moderation, while valuable in some instances, can be quite dangerous. This was in fact the case with Jeremiah.

Jeremiah Johnson
I bought this as a gift so I didn't watch it. If I am rating the service I received, it was exelent.

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