The newest theatrical tale set in The Wild West, The Dead Don’t Hurt (2024), opens on a knight in shining armor riding horseback through the woods of France. Who this knight is and what they mean changes every time they appear. It’s a thematic device that attempts to elevate the film beyond what could have been a safer sophomore directorial effort from Viggo Mortenson (Lord of the Rings: Return of the King; Crimes of the Future).
Vicky Krieps as Vivienne Le Coudy in Viggo Mortensen’s western THE DEAD DON’T HURT. Photo Credit: Marcel Zyskind. Photo courtesy of Shout! Studios.
When we meet Holger Olsen (Mortenson), he’s a sheriff burying his wife and is asked to avenge six men gunned down in the street by a madman. However, he’s too concerned with innocence and guilt to appease the leaders of the town. When we meet Vivienne Le Coudy (Vicky Krieps (Phantom Thread; Old)), she’s on a bad date. Let me correct myself. We met her the first time a few minutes earlier, as the corpse Holger was burying. The film initially seems to be set on two tracks, the present and a flashback timeline, but it reveals itself, a bit clumsily, to be three timelines weaving in and out of each other in a very moving tapestry about masculinity, what makes a family, duty, and violence. Given how critically panned his first film, Falling (2020) was, it speaks well of Mortensen that his second attempt behind the camera is sure to receive a warmer reception while continuing his daring attempts to grasp complex characters with two hands.
”Why do men fight?” – Vivienne
”It’s complicated to explain Vivienne. They have their reasons.” -Vivienne’s Mother
If you were one of the dozen or so people who joined me in watching the trailer for The Dead Don’t Hurt on YouTube, then you might think Mortensen’s Danish cowboy is the lead of the western drama, but it’s actually Krieps’s Vivienne, a French-Canadian/American raised on stories of Joan of Arc and making a living selling flowers in San Francisco and dating boring men with money. When she was a child in the Northeast, her father left to fight the British, who maintained a presence on the continent long after the War of 1812, in Canada. Mortensen’s Holger fought in what’s probably one of the Napoleonic or Schleswig conflicts, and when he returned, his first wife has passed. They have both suffered greatly when men abandoned their duty to family in favor of duty to war, which is why Holger’s decision to then enlist in the Civil War is so confounding to Vivienne, driving the film’s conflict. “Oh no, Vivienne is too hot and too in love with me, I must go to war and get sad.” – Holger in this movie, I guess.
Solly McLeod as Weston Jeffries in Viggo Mortensen’s western THE DEAD DON’T HURT. Photo Credit: Marcel Zyskind. Photo courtesy of Shout! Studios.
Jokes aside (though that is kind of the whole vibe), the contradiction at the heart of patriarchal masculinity is what the film is trying to get at through the suffering it causes Vivienne, Holger, and the local town. The dehumanization and sexualization of women as possessions of men is the first order of harm of such a system, but the second order is the damage done to men by richer, more powerful men. Class is always a modifier. War and violence have cost Holger everything, yet he still feels compelled to seek it out. He is tasked with defeating this urge, but only when placed in the path of Weston Jeffries, played by Solly McLeod (Tom Jones; Outlander). Where Holger wrestles with his masculine pressures, the terrifying and brutal Weston revels in them. His introduction is shocking, and every subsequent appearance is unforgettable as a depraved, T-1000-esque force of evil. Vivienne, in turn, claws for any self-actualization and independence she can, dreaming of Joan of Arc. Krieps’s performance is the only one to match McLeod’s, and she gives what’s probably the most powerful fourth wall break since Fleabag (2016-2019); certainly, the best that will be delivered in the year of our lord, 2024.
Garret Dillahunt as Alfred Jeffries in Viggo Mortensen’s western THE DEAD DON’T HURT. Photo Credit: Marcel Zyskind. Photo courtesy of Shout! Studios.
It’s the technical side of the film where Mortensen’s direction shines the strongest. It’s his second collaboration with director of photography Marcel Zyskind (Mister Lonely; The Two Faces of January), whose clean and neoclassical compositions feel like the kind of journeyman competence that digital photography has been waiting for. Studios and streaming services should pay him money to copy and institutionalize his back-end methodology, and we’d all be happier for it. The editing is great after the early legibility issue of the third timeline. Even the clothes (by Anne Dixon (Shrouds; The Song of Names)) are great for a period film this small, transitioning from well-worn to new as the fortunes of the town improve, but without the tell-tale signs of machine manufacturing. Mortensen’s handling of difficult subjects like the film’s trailer-telegraphed sexual assault is impressive, which plays out with obvious care for not retraumatizing any audience members as much as possible while still aiming for a visceral experience.
Danny Huston as Rudolph Schiller in Viggo Mortensen’s western THE DEAD DON’T HURT. Photo Credit: Marcel Zyskind. Photo courtesy of Shout! Studios.
The Dead Don’t Hurt is a film that drops its title as a line of dialogue at the exact halfway point of the film. It’s in love with some weak narrative devices barely worth mentioning, that make more sense when you remember that Viggo Mortensen is also an experimental poet and musician, where they’d feel more at home. Even the strongest one, the recurring image of a knight in shining armor, suffers slightly from a poet’s love of rhyme, not reason. It has some unforgettable performances and some very forgettable ones (which ones? I didn’t even mention them because I forgot to until just now!) from good actors. Still, there are few cinematic pleasures as great as hearing Garret Dillahunt (No Country for Old Men; AmbuLAnce) pronounce “Huckleberry” in a western drawl, or watching Viggo Mortensen make himself even hotter while shooting scum in the Wild West. It’s pretty good, and I’d watch another without too much prodding.
In select theaters May 31st, 2024.
For more information, head to the official Shout! Studios The Dead Don’t Hurt webpage.
Final Score: 4 out of 5.
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Categories: In Theaters, Reviews
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