The article looks at Jeremiah Johnson (1972), the Robert Redford western that reached the screen only after a difficult and roundabout production history. It highlights how the film, an unconventional take on the genre, was shaped by a clash of personalities before settling into the pairing that eventually made it work, and situates it within the wider rivalry between Redford and Clint Eastwood as competing western stars of the era.

The project was originally set to be directed by Sam Peckinpah, but he lost the job after falling out with Eastwood, who was reportedly considered for the lead and had a habit of "ghost directing" films he starred in; Eastwood instead went on to make Dirty Harry with Don Siegel. Jeremiah Johnson ultimately reunited Redford with director Sydney Pollack, using a lean script by John Milius, and stood out for its sympathetic depiction of indigenous people and its environmentalist themes. The Redford-Pollack partnership proved enduring, later yielding films including The Way We Were, Three Days of the Condor, Out of Africa and Havana.