THE HIRED HAND
US, 1971, 92 minutes, Colour.
Peter Fonda, Warren Oates, Verna Bloom, Severn Darden.
Directed by Peter Fonda.
The Hired Hand marks Peter Fonda's debut as a film director. Previously, he had played in a mixture of films, then broke through in Easy Rider (1969) which he produced and helped to write with Dennis Hopper.
Many critics acclaimed The Hired Hand as a film masterpiece. Others dismissed it as a boring piece of slow-moving pretentiousness. The structure of the film is ballad-like and the whole film projects this ballad-like quality - the incidents, the frequently wordless action, the elemental themes, the musical background, the camerawork, the tragedy implicit in the story. The principal characters give fine performances in a film that is well worth seeing, studying and discussing.
1. Many critics acclaimed this film as excellent, others condemned it as a pretentious bore. What was your opinion? Why?
2. Was the film a good western? How did it use the conventions of the western?
3. Comment on the photography - the use of colour, the pretty landscapes and the harshness, the concentration on profiles and facial expression; on the editing with the super-impositions, dissolves etc. Did it add to the beauty of the film, atmosphere, meaning?
4. What did the use of the guitar musical score contribute to the film?
5. What was the meaning of the long opening sequence with the swimming and drowning body? Was this explained?
6. How did the environment of the west make its impact on the plot, the audience How was the town presented, was it too harsh, foreboding? How was this communicated?
7. In the building up of the friendship between the three men how tragic and brutal was the boy's death? How disgusting the malice of the townsmen?
8. Why had Collings decided not to go to California but to return to his wife? Hhy had he married her? Left her?
9. Why had Harris decided to go to California with the boy? How had he grown in friendship with Collings over seven years?
10. How brutal was their revenge on the boy's murderers? Was this justified?
11. How well did Verna Bloom convey the feelings of the wife? She said little but expressed much. How? Has the relationship between husband and wife well-developed? How was this shown in the ordinariness of farm life? What effect did the homecoming have on Collings? (What parallels were there with the parable of the Prodigal Son and the return home as a hired hand?).
12. How sickening was the sending of the finger? How cruel the imprisonment of Harris? Should Collings have gone to his rescue?
13. How strong were the bonds of his friendship? What obligations did he have to his wife and child? Were they secondary in this crisis?
14. Did Collings have a premonition of death - a death-wish?
15. How surprising was his death, shocking, sad? Was it necessary?
16. Has Harris' wordless return a satisfying ending to the film?
17. What did the style of the film and its touches of beauty and feeling reveal about Peter Fonda as an artist? Do you think this film is a great one? Why?
