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The Hired Hand (1971)

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Average Rating: 7.4/10
Reviews Counted: 11
Fresh: 10 | Rotten: 1

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Average Rating: N/A
Critic Reviews: 3
Fresh: 2 | Rotten: 1

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Movie Info

Meeting largely mixed reviews during its first run in 1971, counterculture icon Peter Fonda's directorial debut was restored and remastered for its 30-year anniversary. The film opens with three drifters greeting the morning by cavorting in a sun-dabbled mountain river. Harry Collings (Fonda) catches a fish and gives it to Arch Harris (Warren Oates) who grills it over a low fire, while Dan (Robert Pratt) -- the youngest of the three -- bathes in the swift moving current. Later, as they head into

R, 1 hr. 30 min.

Western, Drama, Action & Adventure, Classics

Directed By: Peter Fonda

Written By: Alan Sharp

In Theaters: Aug 11, 1971 Wide

On DVD: Oct 28, 2003

Sundance Channel Home Entertainment

The Hired Hand Trailer & Photos

Cast

Peter Fonda
Harry
Warren Oates
Arch
Verna Bloom
Hannah
Robert Pratt
Dan
Severn Darden
McVey
Ann Doran
Mrs. Sorenson
Larry Hagman
Al Hopson
Bartender
Ted Markland
Luke
Michael McClure
Plummer
Owen Orr
Mace
Gray Johnson
Will
Rita Rogers
Mexican Woman

Critic Reviews for The Hired Hand

All Critics (16) | Top Critics (4) | Fresh (12) | Rotten (1) | DVD (6)

A touching and absurd example of the hippie western.

October 14, 2003 Full Review Source: Village Voice

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J. Hoberman

Village Voice

Top Critic

This groundbreaking 1971 western nimbly upsets most of our expectations about cowboy movies.

August 7, 2003 Full Review Source: Minneapolis Star Tribune

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Colin Covert

Minneapolis Star Tribune

Top Critic

If Dennis Hopper dismantles revisionist-Western ennui in The Last Movie, Fonda embellishes it with poetic muddiness

September 6, 2009 Full Review Source: CinePassion

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Fernando F. Croce

CinePassion

Bloom is excellent as the abandoned wife who aserts her independence even when she's so vulnerable.

September 27, 2007 Full Review Source: Ozus' World Movie Reviews

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Dennis Schwartz

Ozus' World Movie Reviews

...perhaps the best of that cycle of realistic, existential Westerners produced in the late 1960s and early 1970s

January 7, 2005 Full Review | Comment

Philip Martin

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Now that it has been restored, people are beginning to realize it got a bum rap back in the day.

October 23, 2003 Comment

Jon Popick

Planet Sick-Boy

A work dear to Fonda's heart, he has often spoken of his wish for this film to be his epitaph. It's one that would do any director proud.

December 17, 2001 Full Review Source: BBC

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Jason Wood

BBC

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Audience Reviews for The Hired Hand

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"The Hired Hand" is a 1971 western directed by Peter Fonda(his first, and perhaps only noticeable effort) about a man who after several years wandering aimlessly with his pal through the West, decides to return to the wife he left several years before. The movie is deliberately paced and occasionally artsy. It is

January 1, 2005

Walter M.

Super Reviewer

there are a number of things i really liked about this, but too much time was spent on "cinema trickery" that was unnecessary. Fonda's performance was maybe the weakest out of the entire cast.

December 12, 2008