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Factual errors
The narrator says that Johnson was looking for a Hawken gun, .50 caliber or better. He settled for a .30. In the fur-trade era, rifles were not described by caliber but by gauge as shotguns still are. The .30 would mean that 30 of the round ball for the rifle would be made from one pound of lead. This corresponds to the .53 caliber rifles often made by the Hawken brothers. Note: black powder rifles are not subsonic. With 60 grains of black powder, the .53 caliber rifle with its typical 34-inch barrel will give a velocity of around 1350 feet per second. (The speed of sound is typically estimated at 1100 feet per second.)
Del Gue's clothes are pristine, with the bright colors unaffected after being buried in the sand.
Del Gue buried in the sand up to his neck is at first soaked with perspiration. A moment later, his head is almost dry.
In the opening scenes where Jeremiah is heading into the mountains for the first time and arriving at the trading post, the barge he is riding in comes from upstream.
When Jeremiah shares a rabbit with Bear Claw Chris Lapp, one shot shows no smoke from the fire, but in the other shots, much smoke was visible.
When Jeremiah Johnson first finds Hatchet Jack's frozen body holding the .50 caliber Hawken, the gun is held with the barrel tilted slightly upward. In subsequent shots, the angle of the rifle barrel changes several times to slightly different downward- or upward-tilting angles, never the same twice.
Early in the film during the winter, a grizzly bear is shown chasing a character. Not likely since in the winter grizzly bears hibernate 5 to 7 months.
When Jeremiah leaves the trading post at the beginning of the film, he states that his rifle is "only a .30 caliber, but it is still a Hawken". Soon after, he takes a shot at a running deer (before finding Hatchet Jack's .50 cal. Hawken), and it can be seen that the bore of his rifle is large - .50 cal. or larger.
The narrator says that Johnson was looking for a Hawken gun, .50 caliber or better. He settled for a .30. In the fur-trade era, rifles were not described by caliber but by gauge as shotguns still are. The .30 would mean that 30 of the round ball for the rifle would be made from one pound of lead. This corresponds to the .53 caliber rifles often made by the Hawken brothers. Note: black powder rifles are not subsonic. With 60 grains of black powder, the .53 caliber rifle with its typical 34-inch barrel will give a velocity of around 1350 feet per second. (The speed of sound is typically estimated at 1100 feet per second.)
When Jeremiah first meets the Crazy Woman, the rifle she points at him does not have a percussion cap on the nipple. Since frontier women often loaded the guns for the men, she would know that the cap is needed for the rifle to fire.
(at around 57 mins) After Jeremiah marries Swan, they, along with Caleb, are seen in a wide shot riding from right to left across the plain. One of the pack animals looks as though it about to buck. Instead, over the next few seconds, it defecates. Leaving this in a film in 1972 is either a mistake or a deliberate 'thumbing the nose' to censors.
To the contrary, enforcement of the Hayes code ended in the late 1960s, and both director Sydney Pollack and star Robert Redford had sufficient cachet to get movies filmed realistically.
To the contrary, enforcement of the Hayes code ended in the late 1960s, and both director Sydney Pollack and star Robert Redford had sufficient cachet to get movies filmed realistically.
After burying her murdered family, Crazy Woman begins singing "Shall We Gather at the River" and Jeremiah joins in. This song was written by Robert Lowry in 1864 and first published in 1865, long after the time of the mountain men.
The time period is around the 1830s, yet when Johnson is guiding the soldiers to rescue the civilians stuck in the snow, he asks the lieutenant in charge how "the war with the president of Mexico is going." The lieutenant says, "It's over." Johnson asks, "Who won?" The war with Mexico was from 1845 to 1847. The trade in beaver pelts was over by 1840.
When first showing Johnson setting or checking a trap, there is a "V" logo on the pan of the trap, meaning it is a Victor-brand trap (widely used in the 1960s and 70s during the fur trapping boom of that period). Victor traps were not in existence during the setting of this movie.
When he runs into Del Gue late in the movie, Johnson tells Del that he may head to Canada. In the 1830s, the country of Canada was not yet formed, and while there was a region with the name, it was far to the east of the Crow and Flathead territories. The territory Johnson most likely was referring to would be Rupert's Land or possibly the territory of British Columbia; those would be the non-US territories closest to the Crow Nation.
When asked if Indians buried him in the sand, Del Gue replies "T'wernt Mormons." If, as others have pointed out, the story takes place before 1830, there was no such thing as Mormons. The church did not come about until 1830. The Mormons did not move west until 1847.
Throughout the film gunshots are heard as a modern high velocity (crack sound as the bullet is supersonic) rather than the boom of a subsonic blackpowder firearm. Also, the firearm smoke is minimal (modern smokeless powder) modern smokless powder wasn't available until about 1890.
Just after Jeremiah leaves bear claw, he stops and shoots a small deer. When the deer is shot, you can, for a split second, see the arm of a person that throws the deer onto the ground.
Near the end, Jeremiah is walking up to the crazy woman's cabin from the rear; a blue tarp-like image is visible over his right shoulder.
After burning his cabin down, Johnson approaches the Indian camp. When he jumps up to attack the rider on the horse, a long rectangular black box can be seen under the skin used for a saddle.
Johnson and Del Gue meet up with Flathead Indians in what clearly is the red rock desert country of southern Utah or northern Arizona. The Flathead, or Salish People, lived in Montana and British Columbia, 1,000 miles away.
The Crow, Blackfoot and Flathead Indian tribes were up around what later became Montana. The Colorado territory, where Johnson is supposed to be, had the Arapaho and the Cheyenne.
The rescue party tells Johnson they have been watched all the way from the Gila River. The Gila is 400 miles south of the Colorado border.
When Jeremiah wrestles the Hawken rifle out of Hatchet Jack's frozen hands, he keeps the barrel pointed directly at his own abdomen.
As the newlyweds ride along, Jeremiah Johnson turns around in his saddle, revealing a contemporary plain, gold, wedding band on his right hand, which is how wedding bands are worn in Germany, where I was stationed as a soldier in the United States Army.
When the lady in cabin aims her gun at Jeremiah, it's apparent she is right handed. However, when Jeremiah hangs the door up on her cabin, he sets it for a left-handed person. It would swing in the wrong direction for her to use.
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