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Alan Sharp From Greenock to Hollywood at GFT

Thursday 7 – Thursday 28 September, 2023

Our Alan Sharp season kicks off this week with The Hired Hand, introduced by author of The Anti-hero’s Journey: The Work and Life of Alan Sharp and season curator, David Manderson.

The Hired Hand is a ‘hippie Western’ directed by Peter Fonda and written by Alan Sharp. It catapulted Sharp into the Hollywood mainstream when Fonda, with the success of his first film Easy Rider(1969) still fresh, spotted it as one of most authentic renditions of the Old West he had ever seen.

The Hired Hand is also one of the most experimental films of the 1970s. With a score by Bruce Langhorne and cinematography by Vilmos Zsigmund, its slow fades, drifting music and introverted acting style caused a critical reaction that prevented Fonda from directing again for many years. Yet today Verna Bloom’s performance as Hannah, the woman who runs her own farm, is seen as one of the most original representations of a woman in westerns.

The season continues throughout September and also features Ulzana’s Raid, Billy Two Hats and Night Moves.

Programme Information and Tickets

GFT, 12 Rose Street, G3 6RB

Ulzana’s Raid – 14 September, 2023

Billy Two Hats 21 September, 2023

Night Moves, Thursday 28 September, 2023 plus discussion

David Manderson

The season is curated by David Manderson, whose book ‘The Anti-hero’s Journey: the Work and Life of Alan Sharp’ (Peter Lang publishers) is published this year. A post-screening discussion will follow the 35mm screening of Night Moves on Thursday, 28 September. The season is the first time any of Sharp’s American films have been seen on the big screen in Glasgow in almost fifty years.

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