This review won't explain the movie's plot, there are enough of those already. I really do like Westerns, but it's usually easy to criticize them for being so unrealistic. But, The Hired Hand was REALLY well done and probably shows life in the 1800's far better than most movies. The costumes, saddles, firearms, buildings and even the men's scruffy beards were period correct. The movie moves slow, as was life during that time period. Violence was shown as the exception, not an everyday occurrence so don't expect the classic big shoot em up at the end. The acting…quite, deliberate, wonderful. (Just as a side note, I was amazed by how much Peter Fonda resembled Clint Eastwood in appearance and voice.) If you appreciate movies that depict real life situations you will enjoy this one. You should also watch a great film called, Meek's Cutoff. Like this movie, be prepared to sit back, relax and become engrossed in the time period. A time when life was hard and just to survive, everyday people had to make hard choices.

its beauty is almost spectacular. and result of high science of detail. portrait of West life, it is pure poetry. precise, gracefully, delicate, film of silence and small gestures, using admirable cinematography and reflecting a wise vision of Peter Fonda about a world who, in many films, is represented only by the outside aspects. a film about soul of few people, a land and desire. refined and convincing. powerful and strange because it has the courage and force and science to define in deeper manner the genre. one of rare Westerns who impose the essence of a style of life, importance of its values and the need of happiness. a film about solitude, family and duty. about the ambiguity of relations out of classic definitions. an admirable work. and, out of doubts, a masterpiece.

The Hired Hand (1971)An odd and touching Western, kind of between modes and between eras. It's a long way from a John Wayne or John Ford kind of Western. There are many interludes with guitar ambiance and overlapping sequences that create a poetic double image effect. The scenery is the West, of course, and beautiful in sun and rain. If Peter Fonda dominates the movie as the main character (and director, one of three he directed), it's really the feel of riding through the landscape and working the land that gives it its flavor.And all of this really isn't quite enough, the photography and mood-making strong but also a bit dragging. I know movies don't always have to have something happen, but they either have to be so visually astonishing they succeed on those terms, or they have to have another kind of acting and psychological intensity that this film just doesn't have. It's patched together slowly, riding, then scenery, then an incident (sometimes violent).In New Hollywood spirit, the rawness of life is sometimes up front, as when one man dies and quivers in his final twitching moments, or when a man is shot in both feet and writhes in a frenzy. Fonda has always been a middling actor--even in "Easy Rider" he supports the other two main characters, and here he is too often trying to hold up some emotional moment without the acting chops to make it effective. We get the idea, we go along, but it's faintly felt.What does work is a sense of realism--not that the movie is gripping this way, for sure, but it actually avoids some romanticizing you might expect in an easy-going, flowing Western like this. And there is a counter-culture (hippie) aspect to the bulk of the movie, as Fonda and his sidekick get to work on a farm. The idealism of living off the land is made real and beautiful. But hey, there's no getting around this being stiffly filmed. Everyone is sincere and the subject is serious--committing to what matters, rising above a disrupted past, finding peace in working the land. But the way it's put together, which is the director's job, and Fonda is just not pushing the medium at all. Even Assistant Director Howard Koch (a secondary writer on Casablanca) is no help. I actually liked it overall because I like the sentiment, but it's plain old slow at times. Be prepared.

This downbeat, salt-of-the-earth western drama is a meditation on forgiveness and the meaning of friendship, as well as a great showcase for Fonda (who makes his directorial debut), Warren Oates, Verna Bloom, and Vilmos Zsigmond, whose impressive cinematography is almost the fourth star of the movie.Fonda's character is an interesting one. His inability to express himself forces the viewer to learn about his character almost solely through his reactions to the people around him.One complaint though, is that I wish that the character's relationship with his daughter was fleshed out a bit more. As it stand, their interaction was a little superficial. There should have been a scene where he really tries to talk to her.Warren Oates was an excellent actor and always a joy to watch, especially in a western picture. For another western in the same art-house vein, I'd also recommend 1967's The Shooting, where Oates stars alongside Fonda's old pal Jack Nicholson.