Riding west toward the Pacific Ocean, cowboy drifters Harry Collings (Fonda) and Arch Harris (Warren Oates) hope to hit it big in California. Along for the adventure is a youngster, Danny Griffen (Robert Pratt) who's always looking for the next big thing on the horizon. But as they ride into a no-account, run down town of Del Norte, Harry decides he's had enough of the drifting life and wants to go back home. It's been years, but he had a wife and daughter at some point and wants to find them. Longtime friends, Arch tags along.
It's at home on a quaint, little farm they discover Harry's wife, Hannah (Verna Bloom), isn't going to welcome him back with open arms and understandably so. She'll tolerate him, but that's as far as things will go until Harry proves he's there to stay. Arch sees the writing on the wall and leaves his friend, knowing that Harry's found what he's looking for. Everything seems to have worked out perfectly until a rider comes along saying Arch is in trouble, and the only one that can help him is his old friend. Does Harry go and help him, or stay with the life he's rediscovered?
I'm not sure if it makes sense, but this is an artsy western that at times reminded me of Terrence Malick movies. Much of the movie was shot with an eye for the visual, riders moving across a sandy plain or through a densely wooded forest. There's a very lyrical, other worldly feel to the proceedings. One technique I thought worked really well was shots overlapping each other. One in particular has Harry and Arch talking to each other with their faces in close-up while in long shot their bodies are blurred by the setting sun. On top of each other, the two shots form a beautiful shot.
Casting is dead on, plain and simple. Fonda's Harry is similar to Captain America in many ways. He's laid back and easygoing, just looking for a good life and happiness wherever it may be. It's only when you push him too far his other side comes out. As his partner, Oates hits all the right notes as Arch. The veteran character actor was so good at turning it on and hamming it up, just one of the reasons he's the best, but here he underplays everything. Harry and Arch have ridden across the west for 7 years and there's a genuine friendship there. It's that relationship that carries the movie and sets it apart from most westerns with a similar storyline.
Verna Bloom could have easily gotten lost in the movie behind Fonda and Oates, but her performance is on equal ground with them. As Hannah, Harry's wife, she is a woman that's been burned in the past and she has trouble putting it behind her. Hannah is lonely and wants companionship, but she's worried she'll get hurt again, as much for her daughter Janey as herself. Two other supporting roles are worth mentioning, Pratt's youngster Danny and Severn Darden as McVey, the power-hungry little dictator of Del Norte who doesn't have much use for rules or laws and because of that forces a confrontation.
Besides all the casting and cinematography, The Hired Hand is what's right about westerns. Shown through the Harry and Arch relationship, the bigger idea here is loyalty and doing what's right even if the cost may be a hard one to pay. A man does something not because he's forced to do it, but because he knows it's the right thing to do. It's a great little western that I'm glad I watched.
Released through Sundance Film Festival, the DVD has the movie in a well-done widescreen presentation and trailers for a wide variety of Sundance releases. Fonda also provides a commentary track. And if you don't want to invest in the DVD, Youtube has the movie posted and broken up into segments. Here's a trailer if interested.
The Hired Hand (1971): *** 1/2/****
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