Even when he was a gun for hire, Peter Fonda was always his own boss.
He may have missed out starring with his friends Dennis Hopper and Frank Mazzola in the 1955 James Dean classic Rebel Without a Cause, but Fonda has always been known as one of Hollywood's premier outsiders.
In 1966, at the age of 26, Fonda starred in the Hells Angels movie Wild Angels and the next year he starred the LSD fantasy The Trip.
If those weren't strong enough anti-establishment statements, in 1969 Fonda co-wrote and starred as Captain America in Easy Rider.
"I have always maintained that society has no business dictating morality," says Fonda in a phone interview from his ranch in Montana.
"We can make movies about any subject and we can produce art on any subject in any way.
"I personally do not like the photographs of Robert Maplethorp. None of his collections are in my library, but I would fight to the death to defend his right to take and publish such photos."
HAND STIRS POT
Fonda knew The Wild Angels, The Trip and Easy Rider would be controversial films, but he never dreamed his directing debut on The Hired Hand in 1971 would cause almost as much of a stir.
The film is a western about Harry Collins, a drifter who returns to the ranch and the wife he abandoned years earlier.
Collins (played by Fonda) believes he can just start his life over where he left off only to discover his wife (Verna Bloom) is in control of her emotions and desires as well as their ranch.
"I loved that the woman was the central character in a western," he says.
"In my experience, the female characters in westerns were set dressing or just a function of the plot to be used by the characters as much as the writers and directors.
"My sister Jane (Fonda) still maintains I made the first feminist western."
Unfortunately, The Hired Hand was a box-office disaster.
It received positive reviews and had a strong opening weekend but Universal Studio pulled it from release after its second week.
"They didn't know how to market the film. They tried to sell it on my Easy Rider reputation so audiences came expecting something entirely different.
"It seemed everyone in America, including the studio heads, wanted to see me on a motorbike smoking a joint."
It was an enormous personal blow for Fonda, who saw the film's box-office failure as his second major career set back.
OUT OF THE SHADOWS
"With the success of The Wild Angels, The Trip and Easy Rider I felt I had finally emerged from the monumental shadow of my father's reputation."
Peter is the son of Hollywood legend Henry Fonda, who was an icon in his own day.
"But it proved even harder for me to escape the monumental shadow of Easy Rider."
Four years ago Fonda and his friend Mazzola secured the theatrical distribution rights to The Hired Hand and began working on a new director's cut.
"We carefully re-edited it make small changes but changes I felt made the film so much better and so much closer to my original vision."
Fonda is bringing his director's cut of The Hired Hand to Calgary for an extended theatrical run at The Globe beginning with a gala on Thursday.
Tickets for the gala and a reception with Fonda are on sale through the Calgary International Film Festival and through Ticketmaster.
For more information check out the festival's website at www.calgaryfilm.com.
While he is in Calgary, Fonda will ride in the Stampede Parade and host a motorcycle trip into Banff National Park.
Tickets for the ride are also available throughout the festival.
Fonda will be riding his motorbike in the Stampede Parade on July 4.
"The motorcycle is my horse. It always has been. I got my first bike the day I was old enough that I wasn't legally under my father's thumb.
"I have horses down here on my ranch but I only pasture them. I don't ride them.
"Easy Rider is a classic western done with a twist. We mounted our bikes and rode east."
Fonda will saddle up his bike this week and ride up to Calgary in time to host The Hired Hand on Thursday.
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