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The Hired Hand
Peter Fonda had some clout in Hollywood when this post-hippy western was made, having produced and starred as "Captain America" in the cult hit Easy Rider two years earlier. In addition to starring here, Fonda also makes a fine job of directing this cold, almost existential western about a wife (the superb Verna Bloom) torn between two drifters, her husband Fonda and the older Warren Oates. This has all the clever bleakness and cyclical sense of destiny now associated with its writer, the mordant Alan Sharp — who also penned Night Moves and Rob Roy, among others — and is richly rewarding in its portrayal of the tough reality of frontier life. Some audiences might prefer more action, though, and perhaps a less pretentious visual style.
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