Summary

• Oscar-winning actor Robert Redford is known by many modern viewers for his portrayal of Alexander Pierce in Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
• However, Robert Redford is also famous for a popular meme taken from the 1972 Western film, Jeremiah Johnson.
• Despite being forgotten by many, Jeremiah Johnson provides a nuanced critique of the Western genre and its inspirations.

To a generation of moviegoers, Captain America: The Winter Soldier was their introduction to the Oscar-winning actor and movie legend Robert Redford. In Captain America's first solo sequel, Redford portrays Alexander Pierce, a high-ranking S.H.I.E.L.D. secretary and Hydra's public face. Although Redford quickly became one of the Marvel Cinematic Universe's (MCU) most iconic villains, this is actually one of the few evil characters that he plays. For most of his career, Redford portrayed unquestionably noble heroes. What may shock MCU fans is that they may have encountered Redford before they watched Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Specifically, they may have seen him in a meme without realizing it.

Redford is also best known for the reaction GIF where he smiles and nods in approval. This meme was taken from the 1972 movie Jeremiah Johnson, which was directed by Sydney Pollack and starred Redford as the titular trapper. Because Jeremiah Johnson isn't exactly the most well-known Western today and because Redford was much younger (and sported a thick beard) at the time, most viewers didn't realize that he was the same actor who portrayed Pierce almost 40 years later. Out of context, Redford's meme is both touching and hilarious. It's a campy snippet that also doubles as the perfect reaction GIF that shows one's sign of approval. But after watching Jeremiah Johnson in its entirety, the meme actually becomes quite tragic in hindsight.

Robert Redford Is the Man in the Jeremiah Johnson Nod of Approval

The Meme Was Taken from One of the Movie’s Most Peaceful Moments

According to the meme archivist Know Your Meme, the first recorded use of the "Jeremiah Johnson Nod of Approval" occurred sometime in 2012 — 40 years after its initial release in 1972. It should be noted that the meme may have been used earlier, but it wasn't frequently recycled until the stated year. What made the scene so meme-worthy was how it was shot. Before he smiled and nodded, the camera slowly zoomed toward Jeremiah's face as a swelling orchestral score blared in the background. Whether it had music or not, the epic build-up to Jeremiah's nod was perfect for showing a poster's sign of approval online. It's also worth noting that, at the time, most people mistook Redford for The Hangover star Zach Galifianakis. Galifianakis's fame was at its peak around the time this meme became popular, he had a similar build to Jeremiah, and he also had a big bushy beard.

Coincidentally, Captain America: The Winter Soldier hit theaters just two years after the meme's spread. Whether it was because of luck or fate, Redford became a part of the modern pop culture zeitgeist thanks to one of the MCU's best movies, and a nearly forgotten classic from the 70s. It just took a few more years for people to realize that Hydra's most well-known operative and the nodding man who became an internet icon were portrayed by the same actor. Although they now know who the actor behind Jeremiah was, most people still don't know the scene's context, and what made it special.

Jeremiah's nod is taken from a montage that shows the good times he had with his found family. This is a significant change for Jeremiah as a person since he starts Jeremiah Johnson by wanting nothing more than to be a lonesome mountain man. The last thing he has in mind is befriending others, let alone settling down and starting a family. And yet, he gets both. Despite initially keeping Caleb (a boy he adopted from a grieving mother) and Swan (the daughter of the Flatheads' chief who was given to Jeremiah as a "gift") at arm's length, Jeremiah grows to love them. Jeremiah's now iconic nod is the first time he smiles at the two and expresses an emotion other than annoyance or confusion. This is just one of the many heartwarming moments from the montage that showed Jeremiah and his found family adjusting to their new life together. The scene even ends with them building their own cabin in the forest.

Unfortunately, the good times weren't meant to last. After Jeremiah is coerced into leading a rescue party through the Crows' sacred burial grounds, the tribe's warriors kill Caleb and Swan in retaliation. Jeremiah then spends the rest of the movie killing Crow warriors until they are forced to call for peace at the end of the film. Ironically, Jeremiah gets what he thought he wanted. He ends the film all alone in the mountains and away from civilization after fighting in the Mexican-American War. He even becomes a legend in the process, especially after he fended off so many assassins and avenged his murdered family. However, he only gets these after he experiences true friendship and love, then loses them to circumstances beyond his control. In hindsight, Jeremiah smiling back at Caleb and Swan is the kind of bittersweet memory that he will hold onto for as long as he can, since he can never touch or even see his family again. As memes taken from movies or any other form of media are wont to do, the Jeremiah Johnson Nod of Approval lacked the context that made it more than just a cute scene.

Jeremiah Johnson Is One of the Most Underappreciated Westerns Ever Made

Jeremiah Johnson Pairs Well with The Revenant

These days, almost nobody outside dedicated film historians and aficionados know of Jeremiah Johnson. The movie is also rarely (if ever) mentioned in discussions about the broader Western genre and the New Hollywood movement. Its only lasting impact is Redford's aforementioned nodding meme. Jeremiah Johnson's lack of a fandom isn't all that unexpected, considering it's not the easiest movie to recommend. For one, the movie lacks a typical plot or conflict. Even when Jeremiah starts slaughtering the Crows, the movie's pace is so laidback that it often dedicates entire scenes to follow Jeremiah walking in the snow. Jeremiah's revenge only begins in the third act; before then, the movie chronicled his mundane routines.

Jeremiah Johnson is also not as flashy or instantly iconic as its New Hollywood and Western contemporaries. If The Wild Bunch had its final bloody shootout and Sergio Leone's The Dollars Trilogy starred The Man With No Name, the best Jeremiah Johnson had to offer in terms of iconography were sweeping shots of the Rocky Mountains and a quaint title song. Jeremiah's rampage was appropriately violent, but it wasn't the movie's focus. As such, his kills weren't as cinematic as some viewers hoped for. It's not uncommon for modern viewers to dismiss Jeremiah Johnson for being too boring or forgettable for their tastes. Jeremiah Johnson's fate isn't a tragedy in any way, since a movie's legacy and importance shouldn't be solely determined by how long it stays in the zeitgeist. That being said, Jeremiah Johnson deserves a lot more attention and love. Not only was the movie the first Western to premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, thus legitimizing the genre like never before, but it had a lot to say about America's dark history as well.

The easiest way to pitch Jeremiah Johnson to modern viewers is to compare it to a more contemporary Western film: The Revenant. Both Jeremiah Johnson and The Revenant loosely adapt the life and times of legendary frontier-era trappers (John "Liver-Eating" Johnson and Hugh Glass, respectively). More importantly, both movies can be read as much-needed critiques of the aggrandizing myths that the Western genre and the trappers' own tall tales enabled for more than a century. The American plains were a dangerous terrain that showed no mercy to anyone who didn't know how to live off the land. Jeremiah and Hugh paid the price for underestimating the frontier, with Jeremiah losing his family and Hugh nearly succumbing to the elements. Despite their heroics, humanity and genuine interest in other people's cultures, Jeremiah and Hugh were still invaders in the Indigenous Americans' homelands. No matter how hard they tried, they were still strangers in a colonized world, and the land never let them forget this.

Although it's a pity that Jeremiah Johnson was all but lost to time, there is some consolation to be found in how the movie found a second life through a meme. Even if the Jeremiah Johnson Nod of Approval lacked the montage's emotional core and even if those who posted the clip probably never saw the movie, Jeremiah lives on. It's also nice to see one of Redford's older movies return to the public consciousness at around the same time he joined the MCU. Redford was perfect as the cunning Pierce, but he has many other performances that are also worth watching. Not all movies are fortunate to be immortalized through quotes or memes. Jeremiah Johnson is one of the lucky few to enjoy a second wind through the internet, no matter how silly its means of doing so were.