Sunday Nights Radio: 1763, Pour Your Sugar on Me, Griz and Condor

A Long Ride on This Sunday Nights Radio

Robert Redford passes from this earth, and while we celebrated Constitution day earlier last week, I started viewing our countries course through the parables of two of Redford’s movies, Jeremiah Johnson and Three Days of the Condor. Those movies are a part of my fabric, I have watched those over and over, yet while thinking about the state of country and how Constitution Day has been overshadowed by our troubles, I saw those movies and our Constitution in new light. This SNR is my longest. I don’t know how good that is, I just had a lot to say. And as soon as I finished, more entered my mind about symbolism I had missed all these years.

More Thoughts On Bear Claw and Jeremiah Johnson

Is Bear Claw an angel, sent to move Jeremiah Johnson on to the next level of his existence. Bear Claw, played by Will Greer known to many as Grandpa Walton, appears twice in course of Jeremiah Johnson’s epic adventure. While I watched the scenes with Bear Claw at first I thought of Odin. Odin, or Wodan, was a war god, but also a protector of heroes. Bear Claw fulfills that capacity when he intervenes to save a starving Jeremiah John during Johnson’s first harsh winter.

Bear Claw’s first lesson is taught in the form of a trick he plays on Johnson, as he offers the “cocky starving pilgrim” shelter in his cabin and asks “Are you sure you can skin Griz?” Bear Claw returns, fleeing a charging bear as he leads it into the cabin, then bails with a flying leap through a window. Johnson has to skin the griz.

Bear Claw mentors Johnson, saving him from the harsh winter. Johnson would have surely starved, or would have frozen, if not for Bear Claw shaping Johnson’s destiny with his outdoor classroom lessons.

In a sense, Bear Claw was like a guardian angel who plucks Johnson from the jaws of death. It is an intervention that puts Johnson on a different path. His journey earns him a family of misfits who he inadvertently adopts, earns him the scorn of the Crow warriors when he assists a rescue party and violate scared Crow burial grounds, and sets Johnson on a path of vengeance when the Crow murder his family. Johnson builds a fearsome reputation with Crow as he refuses to be deterred by the odds as he singlehandedly kills over 300 over their number. The years of his vengeance blend together as vendetta becomes the sole purpose of his existence.

Sitting wearily alone, cooking rabbit in the cold of winter, Johnson resembles the figure of the frozen Hatchet Jack he encountered in the beginning of the movie. Wrapped in bear skins, Johnson is almost indistinguishable from the terrain which nearly brought about his death. Was his survival a reward? As he sits alone, there is a sense of diminishment. Johnson is bone weary. I have watched this scene a dozen times, and for the first time it occurred to me that Johnson’s rage has run out, and with the cessation of the attacks from the Crow braves, his purpose is now gone. He looks like he is dying as the cold of winter beats against him as the cold sense of vendetta drains his inner purpose.

Then Bear Claw magically appears. Like before, he sees Johnson in a pivotal moment. Like an guardian angel, or perhaps an angel who will escort Johnson to “higher territory”. Bear Claws offers Johnson praise, saying “You have come far pilgrim, was it worth the trouble?”

Johnson’s laconic reply is “What trouble?” A pulse of survival emerges with the defiant response. Johnson then surprises his guardian angel with a question.

“Do you happen to know what month it is?”

Johnson’s eyes remain downcast as Bear Claw answers, again I am reminded of the figure of Jack whom Johnson discovered frozen to death. But as Bear Claw answers simply he doesn’t know, Johnson seems to have regained something, and knowing the month is something that was important earlier in his life before hatred drove him to battle the Crow. As he struggles to place the month with what the signs of the season tell him, an earlier part of Johnson emerges. Perhaps more of his humane side, you can see the release of tension in his face as he recalls what it was to want to know what month it is, let alone the day.

“March … Maybe April,” he says, answering his own question.

“March maybe. I don’t believe April … winter is a long time goin’, huh. It stays long, this high”.

And here Johnson, once animated by his question, lowers his head once more as though entering a sleep like trance. Once more he appears to fade. Bear Claw rises to mount his horse. Though he is leaving, Johnson remains inert, head bowed.

“You have done well, to keep so much hair when so many’s been after it,” Bear Claw says. One last wish he imparts. “I hope … you will fare well.” Bear Claw rides away.

Johnson nods while watching his mentor - or his guardian angel - ride slowly away. Then he seems to have more purpose and energy. It’s as though he has received new energy and purpose after the exchange with the man who saved his life and taught him how to survive.

Perhaps it was a dream. Or perhaps it wasn’t Johnson’s time to continue on and hunt “griz” with Bear Claw, maybe his pondering what month it was reconnected him to more peaceful aspects of a life he left behind when he hunted the killers of his adopted family. Or perhaps those moments when his eyes closed, he did pass from this earth, and Bear Claws’ role as guardian has been fulfilled as he gently bestowed his admiration for Johnson becoming a legend. In some sense this conversation gave Johnson permission to let go of his mission, and recognize that the long chapter of revenge was finally written, and it was time to let go and move on.

The very final moments of the film depict Johnson riding alone across snowy mountain terrain until he spies a Crow warrior. As Johnson reaches for his rifle, the warrior raises his hand as a symbol of peace and respect. Perhaps he believes that Johnson is a spirit at this point, this is the final sign that Johnson no longer needs to struggle and there is a new journey to begin.

Related Reading

Over this past year we have really dug into our Constitutional history. In good ways, it’s not the standard rah-rah fair of blind ancestor worship. While I have great admiration for what was achieved, there are ways where things went south. We need to acknowledge those - perhaps the baton is passed to us to recognize more that needs to be done.