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Whistle Stopper - The Hired Hand
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List Price: $9.98
Our Price: $8.99
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Manufacturer: Sundance Channel Home Entertainment
Starring: Verna Bloom, Severn Darden, Megan Denver, Ann Doran, Larry Hagman
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Average Customer Rating:   
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Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 0758445902235
Format: Closed-captioned
Label: Sundance Channel Home Entertainment
Manufacturer: Sundance Channel Home Entertainment
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Sundance Channel Home Entertainment
Release Date: 2003-10-28
Running Time: 90
Studio: Sundance Channel Home Entertainment
Theatrical Release Date: 1971-08-11
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: montage editing mastery
Comment: This is a masterpiece without a doubt, decades ahead of its time and a glittering milestone in the history of both the western genre and American filmmaking. Frank Mazzola, a genius of montage editing artistry adds a new dimension of delight and rapturous beauty to this brilliant work lifting it into the pantheon of timeless cinematic perfection. A feast for the eye, the mind and the soul. Bravo to all involved in re-issuing this new cut.
editor of both the original and recut versions, is perhaps the best montage artist ever to come out of Hollywood. His extraordinary work
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Summary: It's the supporting characters that make it work
Comment: Warren Oates may not be the star of The Hired Hand, but both he and Verna Bloom outshine director Peter Fonda's quiet performance. A lot of that's down to the writing, with screenwriter Alan Sharp giving both supporting players excellent parts - indeed, Bloom's is one of the best women's roles ever written for a Western - and part of it seems to be down to the gentle generosity of spirit that Fonda imbues his cut of the film with. While never quite as affecting as it could be, and at times over-egging the artistry with not always successful montages or camera techniques in Vilmos Zsigmond's otherwise marvellous cinematography, it's still a satisfying and rewarding character piece that just happens to be set out West
The collector's edition DVD comes with a plethora of extras, including ample deleted scenes that were restored for the NBC television version that eventually supplanted the theatrical version. They're interesting, and highlight Larry Hagman's nice performance as a very diplomatic sheriff, but their deletion does make the film much stronger, placing the emphasis on the interplay of the three central characters and, most crucially, allowing Oates' character to make his own decision towards the film's resolution. It's a shame that screenwriter Alan Sharp isn't among the interviewees on the one-hour documentary on the disc, but perhaps that's because, ever the realist, he always regarded his fine Western scripts as pastiches where everyone else is arguing in favor of the film's realism and revisionism. But most bizarre among the extras are Universal's original trailers and radio spots, marketing it as an all-action revenge Western for the Easy Rider crowd - `Peter Fonda is riding again - back to the woman he loves and the revenge he craves!'
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Summary: A Quiet 70's Western that is hauntingly Memorable
Comment: "The Hired Hand" was Peter Fonda's first stab at directing (he only directed two more films). The story involves Fonda going back to his wife and homestead after several years absence; he brings his buddy Warren Oates along with him. His wife, Verna Bloom, isn't so interested anymore with being his wife (and who can blame her?) so she hires him and Oates on as ranch hands, hence "The Hired Hand."
Speaking of Verna Bloom, she's not made out to be very attractive in the film; she just comes across rather bland and plain. One could argue, of course, that this adds to the realism of the picture; after all, would you likely catch a bodacious goddess living alone in the Western wilderness for very long? I only bring this up because Verna appears one year later in Clint Eastwood's "High Plains Drifter," wherein it is revealed that she is actually quite a fair-looking woman. Who knows, perhaps it's simply because she has her hair down in the latter film.
In any event, "The Hired Hand" is a quiet, highly believable picture that boldly sneers at Western film conventions. Yes, you'll see a couple of gun fights, but they're realistic in tone and unconventional to the Western genre.
This may make the film boring to some, but not to me. Truth be known, I like a variety of Westerns, everything from "Shane" to "The Missing" and everything in between. The only Westerns I don't like are ones that have that goofy, unrealistic vibe, like "Hondo" (I'm not talking about Western comedies here; I love "Support Your Local Sheriff").
"The Hired Hand" probably won't blow you away or anything; it's a quiet, adult-oriented film. I saw it last December for the first time and, somehow, various sequences have just stayed with me; like they're burnt into my psyche. It's hauntingly memorable. If this sounds like your cup of tea, don't miss out.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A patient, delicate and redemptive Western.
Comment: Martin Scorsese in the two minutes he contributed to disk number two, described the film industry during which "The Hired Hand" was born, adventurous and willing to take chances after the success of "Easy Rider." Not a description one would typically assign to a picture that is as gentle and patient as "The Hired Hand." The film begins like a baptismal dream, with a slightly out of focus lens capturing the shimmering beauty of a man joyously splashing in the water and another fishing at the rivers edge. Behind the tranquil images a banjo and a fiddle, lazily easing their way through the morning. When the two men become three we learn that they're California bound . . . to see the "Ocean like a great blue prairie." When the body of a drowned seven or eight year old little girl gets snagged on the leader's fishing line, the tenor of the serenity changes, resonating more deeply and with purpose. Harry will not make the journey to the sea but instead will make the journey back home to the wife and child he left for his wanderlust. When he arrives home to find an embittered, lonely, but determined woman along with a carefree 7 year old girl, he offers his services as a "hired hand" to work the place to "see how it runs." With this arrangement having been made, the slow process of healing and reconciliation begins but caution must be heeded because loneliness is like a cancer: it eats away at one's resistance and is a poor surrogate for commitment. This balancing act is played out with delicacy, tenderness and a devotion to the characters. "The Hired Hand" is a film laced with religious symbolism with the action coming only after long spells of traveling, trading horses and reflection. From the moment that we see the drowned girl till the moment our protagonist tells his wife "I'll be back" there is this sense of inevitability, and it is the tension between the desire to rest and the need to act that keeps the film moving forward. Extremely well done.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Good Work
Comment: Like the recent "Sargasso Sea", this flick is a prime example of how the industry can every now and then, with no rational explanation, fumble the ball completely. "Hired Hand" was tossed on the market in '71 with no backing whatsoever and sank like a stone. A year or so later, it was shown on national TV. I clearly recall that for several days it was all that people were talking about. Not the critics, who were still sucking their thumbs, but ordinary viewers, wondering where this great picture had come from, what it was doing on the tube, and why they didn't make more just like it. In the age of the Net and the DVD, "Hired Hand" would have had a fine long run. As it is, it's good to see it back after thirty-odd years.
"Hired Hand" is a near-perfect combination of acting, cinematography, storyline, and music. Fonda, seriously skidding since "Easy Rider", gave a performance that should have revived his career then and there. It's also one of the finer moments of Warren Oates' long record of providing support for better-known actors. Verna Bloom was a veteran of small roles in many well-known films. Here she embodies the frontier wife, plain, strong, and unbending. Decades were to pass before it became common for actresses to face the camera in this kind of role with next to no makeup. Nobody has ever made it work better than Bloom.
The music, a lone guitar playing long, sad melodic lines, will stay with you for years. The story is as simple as they come, and as unforgettable.
"Hired Hand" is an adult Western in the pure sense, a film dealing with adult problems in a clear-eyed manner: the consequences of necessary and terrible decisions, the regret that remains long afterward. One thing often neglected in film Westerns is the simple human cost of the Westward Migration, not only in lives but in crippled emotions, overwhelming loneliness, and unending grief. "Hired Hand" brings this across more clearly than any other film I've seen. The final shot of the frontier wife on the porch clutches the soul; for a single moment we're one with all those forgotten figures whose suffering exceeds anything we know, and could never have been matched by what they hoped to gain. And that, children, is what we call art.
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Editorial Reviews:
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He deserted his family to explore the frontier, but life is about to lead him home. After roaming the Wild West, a wayward husband returns home to his wife and child, but rebuilding their family will involve an unexpected test of faith and a vital journey of forgiveness. The Hired Hand reconfigures the traditional Western in a story that emphasizes the human reality that underlines the cowboy myth. Its focus is less on adventure than on the emotional journey and fallout of adventure.
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