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Having been at the forefront of America’s here-and-now with Easy Rider and the counterculture movies of Roger Corman, Peter Fonda retreated to the past and the American West for his directorial debut, The Hired Hand.

Fonda plays Harry, a man who deserted his wife and child to explore the wide-open plains with his best friend Archie (Warren Oates). “Tired of the life” he decides to finally return home in order to rekindle his marriage and reacquaint himself with his daughter.

Scripted by Alan Sharp (Ulzana’s Raid, Night Moves), shot by Vilmos Zsigmond (Blow Out, The Long Goodbye) and with a standout score by folk musician Bruce Langhorne, The Hired Hand is a beautiful, elegiac picture that ranks alongside The Outlaw Josey Wales and Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid as one of the finest Westerns the seventies had to offer.

SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS

• High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentation of the feature, transferred from original film elements by Universal
• Uncompressed Mono 1.0 PCM Audio
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• Audio commentary by actor-director Peter Fonda
• The Return of The Hired Hand, a 2003 documentary containing interviews with Fonda, cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond, composer Bruce Langhorne, actor Verna Bloom and others
• Deleted scenes
• Trailer
• TV spots
• Radio spots
• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Sean Phillips

First pressing only: Collector’s booklet containing new writing on the film by Kim Morgan.

I've only ever heard good things about this one. I'll definitely try and pick up a copy as this release seems to be quite a step up from the seemingly poor US release.

Well a 70s western with Zsigmond on camera and Frank Mazzola (Performance) editing it this had to be great, and I also heard it's brilliant.

I thought it was one of the worst abominations of 70s American cinema, so now you've heard a competing perspective

Colour me underwhelmed too but hope Arrow do well with it.

I'll third that this is not what I'd call good cinema.

I'll fourth it. Interesting soundtrack though.

Well, I enjoyed it, and unless they make a mess of the transfer, I will probably upgrade my 11 year old Tartan 2-disc CE DVD.

Well, I love it. One of the most beautiful and unusual American films of the 70s, with fantastic performances from Warren Oates and Verna Bloom.

zedz wrote:Well, I love it. One of the most beautiful and unusual American films of the 70s, with fantastic performances from Warren Oates and Verna Bloom.

I would say that from experience and decent memory that any 70s film that has Warren Oates in it is probably going to be great

I'm a fan as well. For context, I think it's as good if not better than The Shooting.

I think it's better in every way than Any of Hellman's westerns, which I think are plodding, slight, moodless and pretentious.

Now if someone would release Fonda's Idaho Transfer, not a great film but very interesting.

Agree with the praise for The Hired Hand. There's so much that's good about this film, but I'll say this: Along with Altman's Images, it's one of cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond's most beautiful and underrated films from the most productive and creative run of his career. The first few moments had me stunned, almost feeling like I was watching something by Sokurov.

A real love/hate thing going here. I guess I'll just have to give it a try.

FINAL SPECS:

Having been at the forefront of America’s here-and-now with Easy Rider and the counterculture movies of Roger Corman, Peter Fonda retreated to the past and the American West for his directorial debut, The Hired Hand.

Fonda plays Harry, a man who deserted his wife and child to explore the wide-open plains with his best friend Archie (Warren Oates). “Tired of the life”, he decides to finally return home in order to rekindle his marriage and reacquaint himself with his daughter.

Scripted by Alan Sharp (Ulzana’s Raid, Night Moves), shot by Vilmos Zsigmond (Blow Out, The Long Goodbye) and with a standout score by folk musician Bruce Langhorne, The Hired Hand is a beautiful, elegiac picture that ranks alongside The Outlaw Josey Wales and Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid as one of the finest Westerns the seventies had to offer.

SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS

• High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentation of the feature, transferred from original film elements by Universal
• Uncompressed Mono 1.0 PCM Audio
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• Audio commentary by actor-director Peter Fonda
• The Return of The Hired Hand, a 2003 documentary containing interviews with Fonda, cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond, composer Bruce Langhorne, actor Verna Bloom and others
• Deleted scenes
• The Odd Man, Charles Gormley and Bill Forsyth’s 1978 documentary portrait of Scottish screenwriters, including Alan Sharp [Blu-ray exclusive]
• Interview with Martin Scorsese
• Warren Oates and Peter Fonda at the National Film Theatre, an audio recording of the actors’ appearance at the NFT in 1971
• Stills gallery
• Trailers
• TV spots
• Radio spots
• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Sean Phillips

(The Odd Man is presented in HD, a new scan from the original camera negative.)

Come on, someone must've watched this by now.

How's the transfer?

I recall the restoration of this film looking enormously impressive at the cinema. But that was a long time ago. How's it fare on Blu ray?

I'm sure people are anxious given whom it's coming from, Universal.

M Sanderson wrote:Come on, someone must've watched this by now.

How's the transfer?

I recall the restoration of this film looking enormously impressive at the cinema. But that was a long time ago. How's it fare on Blu ray?

I'm sure people are anxious given whom it's coming from, Universal.

http://www.dvdcompare.net/review.php?rid=4513

Thanks.

Have to say, it can be frustrating when nobody posts about watching the actual film.

Always admired Hired Hand, beautiful little character study, well written, sensitive performances, imaginatively lensed and edited.