The Hired Hand
1971 Directed by Peter Fonda
Synopsis
Peter Fonda is riding again... To the woman he lost ... for the revenge he craves!
Harry Collings returns home to his farm after drifting with his friend, Arch. His wife, who had given up on him, reluctantly allows him to stay, and soon believes that all will be well again. But then Harry has to make a difficult decision regarding his loyalties and priorities.
Genre
Popular reviews
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The Hired Hand is a New Hollywood masterpiece from Peter Fonda, a reflective Western in which redemption comes not through revenge, but romance, in all its selfish, selfless glory.
Its title comes from the stone of story at its centre, in which Fonda tries to atone for walking out on his wife (Verna Bloom, shorn of all vanity) by signing on as her hired hand, accompanied by his friend Warren Oates. That set-up suggests gender battles or sexual power-games, but what we get is something altogether quieter, subtler and more persuasive: a story about forgiveness, dependence and the healing of wounds, with an almighty kick in the tail that takes genre mythology and proceeds to do something unforgettable with it.…
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With The Hired Hand, Peter Fonda created a masterpiece, not confined strictly to the western genre though, this can be appreciated by any lover of film. The Hired Hand is high art, and Fonda had excellent help in Vilmos Szigmond (DoP) and Frank Mazzola (editor) in creating a mesmerizingly beautiful movie, from the opening sequenses to the end credits. Freeze frames, slow motion, colour changes, smooth transitions, hypnotic soundtrack and on top of that the most relaxed version of Warren Oates ever, bringing out the best in him, in what is a performance that should have had awards thrown after it. Verna Bloom is another excellent casting choice, and even Fonda is great, although I've never been much of a fan. He should have stayed behind the camera more, but sadly it was not to be....
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Released two years before Terence Mallick's first film, Badlands and the same year as McCabe and Mrs. Miller, this is an exceptional film and if it has alluded me for over 40 years, there are probably others for whom this magical experience awaits. Maybe one too many sunsets, but they are amazing, and one too many double dissolves, but they seem like perfection and this brilliantly photographed, performed and directed movie seizes ones attention from the very start, without credits, and holds it until the enigmatic ending. Great script, very well handled by Fonda, Oates and Bloom and if the story is slight, it is powerful, thoughtful and ever engaging. Beautiful.
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A lost gem of the Western genre that I had never even heard of seven days ago. Peter Fonda, on the back of Easy Rider, directs and stars in this atmospheric genre film closer in heart to Peckinpah (not however in terms of the depiction of violence) than to the likes of Leone. Fonda plays Harry, a drifter tired of his empty life and longs to return to his wife (Verna Bloom) and daughter who he walked out on years ago. The pace is leisurely, the use of editing unique for the genre and the cinematography soft and melancholic. The three key performances (Fonda, Bloom and Warren Oates as Harry's fellow drifter and friend Arch) are all believable and add…
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A failure upon release this Western directed and starring Peter Fonda is still a forgotten gem. Fonda was given total creative freedom off the back of Easy Rider and he created one of the most interesting Westerns of the period. Much like other films of the time it demystifies the new frontier and brings the perpetual conflict between family and the wilderness to the fore. It is a morally ambiguous movie of real beauty. Frank Mazzaola's editing (especially in the striking dissolve and montage interludes) and Vilmos Zsigmond' cinematography create a dreamy and kaleidoscopic vision of the West which married perfectly with Bruce Langhorne's stunning musical score.
The story is deceptively simple but it is the undercurrents that drag you…
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Schöner, melancholischer Anti-Western von und mit Peter Fonda. Hier und da etwas roh und ungeschliffen in seiner Machart, hat aber durchaus seinen eigenen Charme.
Recent reviews
More-
Released two years before Terence Mallick's first film, Badlands and the same year as McCabe and Mrs. Miller, this is an exceptional film and if it has alluded me for over 40 years, there are probably others for whom this magical experience awaits. Maybe one too many sunsets, but they are amazing, and one too many double dissolves, but they seem like perfection and this brilliantly photographed, performed and directed movie seizes ones attention from the very start, without credits, and holds it until the enigmatic ending. Great script, very well handled by Fonda, Oates and Bloom and if the story is slight, it is powerful, thoughtful and ever engaging. Beautiful.
-
The Hired Hand is a New Hollywood masterpiece from Peter Fonda, a reflective Western in which redemption comes not through revenge, but romance, in all its selfish, selfless glory.
Its title comes from the stone of story at its centre, in which Fonda tries to atone for walking out on his wife (Verna Bloom, shorn of all vanity) by signing on as her hired hand, accompanied by his friend Warren Oates. That set-up suggests gender battles or sexual power-games, but what we get is something altogether quieter, subtler and more persuasive: a story about forgiveness, dependence and the healing of wounds, with an almighty kick in the tail that takes genre mythology and proceeds to do something unforgettable with it.…
-
Schöner, melancholischer Anti-Western von und mit Peter Fonda. Hier und da etwas roh und ungeschliffen in seiner Machart, hat aber durchaus seinen eigenen Charme.
-
With The Hired Hand, Peter Fonda created a masterpiece, not confined strictly to the western genre though, this can be appreciated by any lover of film. The Hired Hand is high art, and Fonda had excellent help in Vilmos Szigmond (DoP) and Frank Mazzola (editor) in creating a mesmerizingly beautiful movie, from the opening sequenses to the end credits. Freeze frames, slow motion, colour changes, smooth transitions, hypnotic soundtrack and on top of that the most relaxed version of Warren Oates ever, bringing out the best in him, in what is a performance that should have had awards thrown after it. Verna Bloom is another excellent casting choice, and even Fonda is great, although I've never been much of a fan. He should have stayed behind the camera more, but sadly it was not to be....
-
A lost gem of the Western genre that I had never even heard of seven days ago. Peter Fonda, on the back of Easy Rider, directs and stars in this atmospheric genre film closer in heart to Peckinpah (not however in terms of the depiction of violence) than to the likes of Leone. Fonda plays Harry, a drifter tired of his empty life and longs to return to his wife (Verna Bloom) and daughter who he walked out on years ago. The pace is leisurely, the use of editing unique for the genre and the cinematography soft and melancholic. The three key performances (Fonda, Bloom and Warren Oates as Harry's fellow drifter and friend Arch) are all believable and add…
-
A failure upon release this Western directed and starring Peter Fonda is still a forgotten gem. Fonda was given total creative freedom off the back of Easy Rider and he created one of the most interesting Westerns of the period. Much like other films of the time it demystifies the new frontier and brings the perpetual conflict between family and the wilderness to the fore. It is a morally ambiguous movie of real beauty. Frank Mazzaola's editing (especially in the striking dissolve and montage interludes) and Vilmos Zsigmond' cinematography create a dreamy and kaleidoscopic vision of the West which married perfectly with Bruce Langhorne's stunning musical score.
The story is deceptively simple but it is the undercurrents that drag you…