The Hired Hand

Reconnection Or Loyalty?

The Hired Hand is directed by Peter Fonda and written by Alan Sharp. It stars Fonda, Warren Oates and Verna Bloom. Music is by Bruce Langhorne and cinematography by Vilmos Zsigmond.

Harry Collings (Fonda) and his partner Arch Harris (Oates) have been out in the western wilderness for too long. Harry finally calls it a day and sets about returning to his estranged wife and child of seven years...

Beguiling, utterly beguiling, now here is a Western movie of such simple formula, yet still it's able to be a mighty treasure. This was Fonda's debut directorial effort, and since he would only go on to direct two more feature films, it's clear it wasn't the medium for him personally. But his love for his debut work speaks volumes, for he knows he got it right, and maybe he ultimately realised he was not going to top The Hired Hand for personal satisfaction reasons?

Pic is like some elegiac fairytale, nuanced to the hilt and dictating the pace on its own terms. Narratively the simplicity comes down to if one man can reconnect with his long estranged family? Then the spanner in the works comes by way of a test of loyalty, front and center that's basically it. There's a superb strand that shows and tells us that a woman needs loving, both physically and mentally, this as the man's world rages around her, but the thrust is three lost and lonely people at the crossroads in this dusty part of the West.

Pic is a technical delight. Zsigmond's (McCabe & Mrs. Miller/Deliverance) photography is sumptuous, rich in naturalistic tones, the moments of beauty captured actually belie the barren landscape these characters inhabit. Langhorne's musical score is tight to everything that's smart about the production, very contemplative and even haunting at times. The editing by Frank Mazzola is impressively impressionistic, and the writing from Sharp (Ulzana's Raid/Night Moves) is astute and uninsulting for period realism.

Fonda turns in a wonderful...