If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Blistering performances.

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 early 1970s certainly were a time when Hollywood took some big chances, and "The Hired Hand" is one example of this. While westerns before it had been fast-paced and action-packed, that is not the case with this movie. It is quite slow at times; for example, it takes more than a third of the movie before Fonda's character first arrives at his wife and daughter's home. But while the movie is slow, it is very captivating all the same. The cinematography is beautiful; shot after shot looks gorgeous. And you can feel the run- down and primitive environment these characters are living in. There is also some good acting, primarily Oates and Bloom. Fonda is only adequate, though that may be that being also in the director's chair, he had to concentrate more on that instead of his performance. Another flaw is that I don't think there are enough scenes between Fonda and Bloom to explain how their relationship is rekindled after so many years of being apart. But the good stuff manages to outweigh the flaws, in my opinion. As for you, dear reader, I don't know for sure what you would think of the movie. If you like westerns and are in a patient mood, the odds are better that you'll like this sleeper of a movie.

I'm surprised at the maturity Peter Fonda the director displays with THE HIRED HAND. It'll be a fruitless search to attempt to find a western resonating with the ambiance and themes of THH in its time. It would take quite a few years for the American western to embrace this new take on the mythos of the old west - far removed from the works of John Ford, Anthony Mann or Howard Hawks.THH relates a small but intimate drama about three men travelling west for California - the gold, the ocean, the cold beer, it's a promised land of sorts for drifters like them. After a deadly incident in a small, rundown village where they bury the younger companion, the other two, Harry (Peter Fonda) and Artch (Warren Oates) decide to turn back and instead of California return to Harry's wife - whom he abandoned six years ago to become a drifter.Upon their return Harris finds a frigid and distant wife, reluctant to have him back. She satisfied her natural sexual frustration over the years by sleeping with the men she hired - and that's exactly how she takes Harry back, a hired hand to do work around the house, until he can earn his way back as her husband.This little vucolic drama unfolds in some neck of the woods, unpretentious and stripped of all fat, laconic as much as it is melancholic. A simple story superbly told, with small nuances and glances and full images that stand in for a barrage of dialogue and the actors hitting all the right notes, underplaying it enough to suck you in the heart of it all.It is only natural then that Vilmos Zsigmond's cinematography matches the tone of the script. Beautiful exterior shots turn the landscape, in turns rugged and comforting, into another character. The only misstep, in my opinion, in the visual aspect of THH is the overuse of montages - Fonda superimposes image upon image as a transitory device which doesn't always work that well. I prefer full, clean images as far as that goes.I can't find any major faults with THH - apart from that it's not what many western fans might be looking for which is of course not an inherent flaw of the film. The third act builds into a gritty and violent revenge subplot that includes a short but terrific shootout whose outcome is suffused with bitter irony. Apart from that however THH doesn't have anything in the way of action, no wild galloping through the prairie, no robbers holding up banks and no cavalries chasing away injuns.As much sombre as it is elegiac, heartfelt and poignant, THH might be little seen but remains one of the best westerns of the 70's. Fans of UNFORGIVEN, OPEN RANGE and the recent THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES will find something to appreciate.