The Hired Hand (1971)

Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

Best movie ever!

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

Harry (Peter Fonda) returns home to his wife and farm after drifting with his friend Arch (Warren Oates) and has to make a difficult decision regarding his loyalties.Due to the huge financial success of "Easy Rider" (1969), which Fonda co-wrote, produced and starred in, Universal Studios gave him full artistic control over "The Hired Hand", his debut as a director. (Universal also did the same for Dennis Hopper with "The Last Movie" that year.) How interesting that Fonda went or a more conventional western rather than a personal, boundary-pushing film.Upon release, the film received a mixed critical response and was a financial failure. In 1973, the film was shown on NBC-TV in an expanded version, but soon drifted into obscurity. In 2001, a fully restored version was shown at various film festivals, gaining strong critical praise, and it was released by the Sundance Channel on DVD. It is now considered a classic Western of the period.My suspicion is the "classic" status is largely because of the names attached. Both Fonda and Oates are cult figures and the cinematographer went on to be rather important. The film, in and of itself, does not really stand out for me. I suppose the idea of a woman doing what she had to do is a bit more frank than usual, which deserves praise.... but otherwise.

Ethereal, Earthy, Poetic Western from Rookie Director Peter Fonda. A Contemplative, Evenly Paced, Well Acted, Wonderfully Scored, and Beautifully Shot Story about Friendship, Family, and Lifestyles in the Latter Half of the 1800's.Fonda, Warren Oates, and Verna Bloom all give Believable Characters the Heart and Weary Souls needed in this Type of Thing. The Type of Thing is Unconventionality Widely Experimented with in the Late Sixties and Early Seventies."Revisionist" is a Label often used and will Suffice with this Dismissed and Forgotten Film. There's hardly a Flaw or a Misstep as the Expressionistic Experience Haunts the Viewer with its Beauty and Simplicity.The Movie has Aged like Fine Wine as it is Unpretentious, Poignant, and Understated. The Writing is Minimalist and the Visuals are Dreamlike. It is an Experience as much as an Entertainment and both Critics and Audiences have been Impressed with its Artistry as it Captures the Time and Place, the People and the Space of Americana.

The Hired Hand (1971)An odd and touching Western, kind of between modes and between eras. It's a long way from a John Wayne or John Ford kind of Western. There are many interludes with guitar ambiance and overlapping sequences that create a poetic double image effect. The scenery is the West, of course, and beautiful in sun and rain. If Peter Fonda dominates the movie as the main character (and director, one of three he directed), it's really the feel of riding through the landscape and working the land that gives it its flavor.And all of this really isn't quite enough, the photography and mood-making strong but also a bit dragging. I know movies don't always have to have something happen, but they either have to be so visually astonishing they succeed on those terms, or they have to have another kind of acting and psychological intensity that this film just doesn't have. It's patched together slowly, riding, then scenery, then an incident (sometimes violent).In New Hollywood spirit, the rawness of life is sometimes up front, as when one man dies and quivers in his final twitching moments, or when a man is shot in both feet and writhes in a frenzy. Fonda has always been a middling actor--even in "Easy Rider" he supports the other two main characters, and here he is too often trying to hold up some emotional moment without the acting chops to make it effective. We get the idea, we go along, but it's faintly felt.What does work is a sense of realism--not that the movie is gripping this way, for sure, but it actually avoids some romanticizing you might expect in an easy-going, flowing Western like this. And there is a counter-culture (hippie) aspect to the bulk of the movie, as Fonda and his sidekick get to work on a farm. The idealism of living off the land is made real and beautiful. But hey, there's no getting around this being stiffly filmed. Everyone is sincere and the subject is serious--committing to what matters, rising above a disrupted past, finding peace in working the land. But the way it's put together, which is the director's job, and Fonda is just not pushing the medium at all. Even Assistant Director Howard Koch (a secondary writer on Casablanca) is no help. I actually liked it overall because I like the sentiment, but it's plain old slow at times. Be prepared.

This downbeat, salt-of-the-earth western drama is a meditation on forgiveness and the meaning of friendship, as well as a great showcase for Fonda (who makes his directorial debut), Warren Oates, Verna Bloom, and Vilmos Zsigmond, whose impressive cinematography is almost the fourth star of the movie.Fonda's character is an interesting one. His inability to express himself forces the viewer to learn about his character almost solely through his reactions to the people around him.One complaint though, is that I wish that the character's relationship with his daughter was fleshed out a bit more. As it stand, their interaction was a little superficial. There should have been a scene where he really tries to talk to her.Warren Oates was an excellent actor and always a joy to watch, especially in a western picture. For another western in the same art-house vein, I'd also recommend 1967's The Shooting, where Oates stars alongside Fonda's old pal Jack Nicholson.