The Hired Hand is a 1971 American western film directed by Peter Fonda,
with a screenplay by Alan Sharp.
The film stars Fonda, Warren Oates, and Verna Bloom.
The cinematography was by Vilmos Zsigmond, and Bruce Langhorne provided the moody film score.
The story is about a man returning to his abandoned wife after seven years
of drifting from job to job throughout the southwest.
The embittered woman will only let him stay if he agrees to move in as a hired hand.
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, and was not issued on home video format until 2001,
when, following critically acclaimed showings of a fully restored version at various film festivals,
it was released by the Sundance Channel on DVD.
User Review
QuoteDisplay MorePractically the definition of "neglected masterpiece"...
22 April 2004 | by JDWalley (Maple Valley, Washington)
I saw the last half or so of this film many years ago, on a small black-and-white television. Even then, I was impressed by a film I had only heard described as a commercial flop and a come-down after "Easy Rider." Maybe people were expecting another "counter-cultural" demythologizing of America's past, as was common in those days, and didn't know what to make of a surprisingly traditional and sensitive drama about loyalty, love, and the desire for new horizons versus the call of home.
Finally, thanks to the 30th Anniversary restoration, I was able to see the entire work, and was not disappointed. Not only is this a well-told and -acted drama, it's easily one of the most stunning-looking films I've ever seen. Nor is it merely "pretty photography," but key to the inner life of the characters, in that you can see how one could be drawn by such beauty into either wandering off through the world in search of new wonders, or returning to those which you've already known.
It's a shame, to me, that Peter Fonda only went on to direct two more (relatively obscure) films. In a decade now recognized as one of the greatest in American filmmaking, "The Hired Hand" is worthy of being considered among the classics.