A first-time experience to forget: the movie Peter Fonda called a “disaster”
Hailing from a successful family who all work in the same business instantly creates a sense of pressure and expectation, but Peter Fonda proved his worth of becoming his own man capable of creating his own legacy in what was a banner period for the clan at large.
In May 1969, audiences got to see father Henry give one of the most iconic performances in an instant classic when Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in the West was released in the United States, and the same December would see older sister Jane’s They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? premiere on the big screen, which earned her a first Academy Award nomination for ‘Best Actress’.
In between those two points, a little film named Easy Rider revved into cinemas in July, and was immediately embraced by a generation. A landmark in counterculture film, the road drama spoke directly to its target audience and the mood of a nation at large, with Fonda earning a ‘Best Original Screenplay’ nomination at the Oscars alongside co-scribes Dennis Hopper and Terry Southern.
Thanks to its success, the key creatives were afforded complete creative control over their next projects, which didn’t end up going particularly well for either. Hopper’s metafictional The Last Movie had him playing a stuntman who quits the industry and moves in with a local sex worker after a death occurs on the set of Peruvian-shot western Billy the Kid.
Hopper’s fondness for drugs and alcohol turned the process into an arduous one, though, and when the film was finally released in September 1971 the response was so vitriolic the writer, director, and star’s career almost hit the skids completely. Fonda was part of The Last Movie‘s cast, but he was also working on something of his own.
He made his feature-length directorial debut and played the lead role in The Hired Hand, which wasn’t very successful. Fonda’s first time behind the camera premiered weeks before Hopper’s latest, and their shared Easy Rider connection saw the studio bigwigs lump them in together. Or at least, that’s the way he saw it.
Speaking to Philip Brasor, Fonda recalled that The Hired Hand “only played on 52 screens for two weeks,” with Universal failing to put in any effort to promote it. His theory was that they “lumped it in with The Last Movie, which came about about the same time.” He was willing to defend his film to the hilt, whereas Hopper’s was brushed off as “a disaster.”
The Hired Hand did find itself a huge supporter in Martin Scorsese, though, who was “helpful in the restoration process” when Fonda’s debut was being cleaned up ahead of a re-release. It’s since become something of a cult favourite, but thanks in part to being given a blank cheque and Hopper blowing his, Fonda doesn’t think his movie ever got a fair shake of the stick.
