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The Hired Hand
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Director: Peter Fonda
Starring: Peter Fonda, Warren Oates, Verna Bloom, Robert Pratt
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One of those rare director's cuts that manages to be shorter than the original, Peter Fonda's often forgotten, highly lyrical Western (the influential Films and Filming magazine rated it ahead of The Last Picture Show, The French Connection and McCabe & Mrs Miller - to which Fonda's film bears more than a passing aesthetic and thematic resemblance - in a 1971 end of year poll) re-emerges into the unblinking light of 2002 (all frenzied MTV style editing according to the director/star) thanks to the sterling work of editor Frank Mazzola and distributor Hamish McAlpine. Eagle-eyed readers may recall that Mazzola's/McAlpine's previous labour of love was returning Donald Cammell's Wild Side to its original glory. With The Hired Hand they have far exceeded their previous achievements.
Fonda directed the film (his first directorial effort and undoubtedly his best), from a script by Alan Sharp, fresh from the critical and commercial success of Easy Rider. When Universal - the studio behind the project - saw the result they were mortified, hastily forcing superfluous battle scenes and unnecessary gratuity in an attempt to hurry along the film's stately pace and character driven narrative. The film was marketed as a guts and gore revenge Western and though finding favour amongst more discerning critics - and McAlpine, who immediately tagged it as one of the most undervalued films of post-war American cinema - never achieved the reputation it deserved. Fonda has always asserted that he would be happy for the film to serve as his epitaph; watching the restored version presented by Mazzola and McAlpine, in close conjunction with Fonda himself - who has excised gratuitous scenes featuring one Larry Hagman - it is easy to see why.
In essence the film is a visual poem, a transcendental mediation on divergent paths, loyalty and, like Peckinpah's restored version of Pat Garrett & Billy The Kid, a eulogy to regret and the passage of time. Further, the film has the distinction of being one of the first in a rare breed of feminist westerns (The Ballad of Little Jo being the most recent), as it concentrates on the ardour endured by Verna Bloom (excellent, as is the perennially under-appreciated snaggle-toothed Warren Oates, here in more laconic mode) as the wife of Fonda's returning nomad. The film's feminist sensibility was a constant surprise to Fonda's sister Jane.
The Hired Hand begins with a beguiling pre-credit sequence which sets the textural tone for the rest of the film; Vilmos Szigmond's (Deliverance) autumnal cinematography capturing the shimmering light of the waters of a mountain river whilst the men frolic innocently in its cleansing, calming luxury. Frank Mazzola's dizzying montage sequences - beautiful recreated in this restored version - in which characters and pastoral vistas blend into one lends the film a truly spiriting sensibility. Bruce Langhorne's haunting score (sadly not available on disc) adds to the film's palpable aesthetic beauty. Directed with the deftest of touches, it's a graceful work of multiple and rewarding pleasures.
Reviewed by Jason Wood
Reader comments about The Hired Hand
Norio Ohhashi (weikie@jcom.home.ne.jp) writes:
In opening scenes,by the river, They're resting, fishing, Tired, to be OUTLAW. In orange light of sundown, Peter Fonda seems like Jesus. Metaphysical music by Bruce Langhorne, cinematography by Szigmond is magic. It's a last masterpiece of modern western movie. Beatiful...It's a beautiful film.
Johnboy (johnboy_99@yahoo.com) writes:
I consider myself a pretty serious film fan, although Westerns aren't a genre i take any particular interest in. But at 35 years of age, i'd never heard of, let alone seen, this movie. When i stumbled upon it late one night on Channel 5 - the poorest of all UK terrestrial channels, it blew me away. I won't go on about the film - its a gritty and poignant evocation of life there and then, and loaded with universal meaning and goodness - it has no agenda beyond being a meditative masterpiece. It sits in the same bracket as 'Billie The Kid', but like Kurosawa would've done it.
Janine Mai (Ja9mai@aol.com) writes:
I keep hearing about the re-release of this film, but so far it seems to be only in the UK. I've seen nothing about it in the US. Does anyone know if it will be released here as well? It's virtually unobtainable in the USA, as far as I can tell.
Appreciate any information anyone may have on this!
Thanks.
alan moore (alan1mozzly@hotmail.com) writes:
I haven't seen the restored version but the original is typical of what happened to westerns in the Seventies. It is loosely speaking a rock'n'roll/counter culture film butit yearns for something far quieter and far more simplistic than the counter culture was widely perceived to have wanted at the time. It is seeking a real America which had receeded into mythology by the time the Seventies had dawned. The feminist sub-text is quite intersting too and the relationship between Fonda and Oates is very well realised probably due to the fact that Fonda stayed with Oates at his home in the Seventies and viewed him as almost a surrogate father. I never did like the double-exposure camp fire stuff though which suggested pretentiousness but the whole way the actors underplayed and the minimalist dialogue were good features of a very likeable film.
Paul Vachier (spam_at_transmitmedia.com) writes:
I saw this film in April at the Taos Talking Pictures Film Festival in New Mexico. Frank Mazzolla was on hand to introduce it. I honestly have to say I was very disappointed with this movie. Other than the beautiful scenery and Verna Bloom's performance, it was pretty weak. Interesting from a film historian point of view but otherwise boring and uninspired.
patrick leary (vcklearpt@aol.com) writes:
I saw this movie when it was originally released in '71 and remember thinking that it was too bad no one would ever see it. I have a vhs from an all night tv showing and watch it once a year. It's one of my all time top tens...
David E. Mayhan (DEMayhan@yahoo.com) writes:
"The Hired Hand" is indeed a wonderful film, but very little mention above is made of the screenwriter Alan Sharp, who wrote the original screenplay. He truly understands the genre of the Western (see "Ulzana's Raid") and his tough, elegiac examination of "losers" is best exemplified in Arthur Penn's "Night Moves" (1975), truly one of the underappreciated films of its time.
Paul Power (Email address withheld) writes:
For NYC-based fans of this film, MoMA is screening it on Friday 4 July at 8:45 p.m. as the concluding film in our second annual festival of preserved films at MoMA Gramercy (127 E. 23 Street).
-Paul Power, senior film and media publicist, MoMA
dale hughes (Email address withheld) writes:
a very slow moving story--but that is exactly one of its strong points.It's a simple story that could have a number of different scenarios; some of the happenings in the film have holes in them big enough to drive a pickup truck through, but, like johnny carson says-buy the premise, buy the bit. Overlooking some of the unbelievable stuff- it's probably the best film i can recall at setting an atmoshpere that many viewers would fantasize about. This is accomplished with the combination of portions of superb film photography and blending of a musical score--to me, the most appropriate musical score i've ever heard with regards to the visual story being shown. The movie ends with ,without a doubt to me, the best two or three minutes of "story telling" by motion picture film in existance. Not a word is spoken but bloom and oates with the camera and music make an unforgettable impression and leave the viewer with just the right amount of questioning as to what would happen next in the lives of these two.
Jake Watson (Email address withheld) writes:
Truly a lovely & breathtakingly beautiful film. Outstanding cinematography & montage editing withj a wonderful heartfelt score. I lved it in '71, just saw the restored version in '04. An exceptional western.
Ken Andrews (Email address withheld) writes:
I can't tell who came back to the farm at the end. Please help?
paul bevan (pauldbevan@yahoo.co.uk) writes:
Jason Wood gets some facts seriously wrong in his review above. The "battle scenes" were not forced on Fonda by the studio, hence they still appear in the Director's cut, and the plotline involving Hagman has never appeared in any version of the film. It was removed by Fonda during the original editing for plot reasons which are fully explained in the excellent documentary that accompanies the new DVD. I suggest Wood watches it.
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