The Dead Don't Hurt: I morti non soffrono

Greetings again from the darkness. It's fairly common for a film to open with a dramatic scene and then take us back for a period of time to show how the story arrived at this point. Of course, the other logical option would be to have that scene serve as the beginning of the story. What happens with this film is rare: The storytelling goes backwards AND forwards. We learn how the characters got to this point and we learn what happens after this moment. The person to thank for this is writer-director Viggo Mortensen. Highly regarded as an actor for years, Mortensen had one previous filmmaking project, FALLING (2020), which made the festival rounds.

Starring as Holger Olsen, Mortensen is a man trying to live a quiet life on the frontier in the 1860's. He spots lovely Vivienne (Vicky Krieps, excellent in PHANTOM THREAD, 2017) having a spat with her well off boyfriend, and very quickly she's drawn to Holger's flirtations. Her making the choice to leave a comfortable upper-crust life for a more challenging one with Holger, gives us a glimpse into the inner-strength and determination of this woman. Soon she is turning his dusty cabin into a home by cleaning, planting a garden, and adding touches of convenience ... such as they were 160+ years ago. And speaking of decisions, Holger makes a life-changing one when he decides to enlist to go fight in the Civil War. It's a decision she tries hard to talk him out of.

While he is soldiering, we learn much about the little town where Vivienne is stuck. A corrupt Mayor Schiller (the always smarmy Danny Huston) is in cahoots with his equally sleazy business partner Alfred Jeffries (Garret Dillahunt, NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, 2007), as they work their master plan of getting rich at the expense of others. Alfred tries his best to control his combustible son, Weston (Solly McLeod), who takes his entitlement to sometimes violent extremes against those weaker than him. Weston takes a real interest in Vivienne, and despite her best efforts, things go wrong between them.

A few years pass and Holger returns. In a brilliant bit of acting and surgical dialogue, Vivienne asks him, "How was your war?" The two work to re-establish their relationship in the wake of the changes that have occurred. When that opening scene comes back around, Holger sets off on a journey for personal revenge. In addition to the two timelines mentioned above, we also get flashbacks (sometimes via dreams) of Vivienne's childhood. By this time, we understand Vivienne and Holger very well. 'Still waters run deep' is a passage that came to mind while watching, and it should also be noted that filmmaker Mortensen and cinematographer Marcel Zyskind (DALILAND, 2022 and a frequent collaborator with Michael Winterbottom) include some wonderful shots of waterfalls, rivers, mountains, and vistas ... the breathtaking shots we appreciate from the western genre. The film deliberately moves slowly (as the times dictate) and captures the hardships of living off the land, and the struggles of separation, yet it also addresses one man's vengeance as necessary before he can move on. We find ourselves not surprised that Viggo Mortensen the talented and intelligent actor is also Viggo Mortensen the talented and intelligent filmmaker.

In theaters May 31, 2024.

The Dead Don't Hurt may sound like the standard issue story of revenge and small town corruption but its greatest strengths lie in how it prioritises its characters and their relationships over any action or exploitation. It didn't need to be told in a non-chronological structure however, it's still able to find its rhythm and become an engaging slow burning western.

Even though it has a few recognisable faces, the film is held together by two quietly commanding performances. Viggo Mortensen & Vicky Krieps both carry the film by themselves at certain points as they internalise most of their feelings whilst showing how they really feel in subtle ways. Together, they make for a believable couple who's quickly blossoming bond has a real tenderness to it.

Viggo Mortensen shows he's a jack of all trades by writing, directing, and composing the score as well as starring in it. His direction is beautiful as he uses Marcel Zyskind's cinematography to gently glide through the sets and display the gorgeous locations in all their natural glory, keeping that going throughout the end credits as well. His mournful western score is a natural fit for the intimate proceedings.

The Dead Don't Hurt

Viggo Mortensen wrote and directed the Western, The Dead Don't Hurt, a story set at the onset of the Civil War. A Danish American meets a French (or Canadian, it's not really clear) American in the American frontier, and they fall for each other but choose not to marry.

Olsen's dream location is a barren piece of land that seems unsuitable for his partner, Vivienne. She makes the best of it by getting a job at the local saloon, and plants flowers and vegetables the best way she can. Olsen, however, feels this urge to go fight in the Civil War, leaving her by herself.

Like most stories of the American frontier, there was not a lot of lawful behavior. With Vivienne now alone, shenanigans ensue. In fact, we know most of the outcome during the opening scene, which I haven't decided was the right decision. But there is enough mystery that I stayed interested, though ultimately disappointed.

I had some trouble with the story as a whole. Showing patriotism for the new country that was still being settled is honorable. But abandoning a woman who begrudgingly decided to stay in a harsh environment was very pathetic. His selfishness sets forth a chain reaction that resulted in a very chaotic ending. Passion for what you love is one thing, but it's meaningless when it comes at the expense of who you love.

I'm also a bit tired of the lawlessness old West trope, even if it's an example of accuracy. Our cartoonish villain's (Weston) father is even afraid of him, along with pretty much the entire settlement. Come on, Viggo. The characterization was just sloppy, and Weston really was only there to give the most extreme of outcomes to Olsen's choice.

I disliked the very end, and I'll leave it up to my readers to see if they feel the same.

I always dream of a return of the great cowboy movie. Not that there haven't been honorable attempts - Lawrence Kasdan, Ron Howard, Tom Selleck. Now we have The DEAD DON'THURT. Hopes rise as we open with drunken psychopath Solly McLeod exiting the saloon, where he's shot four people, and taking down a wounded local and the agreeable boy deputy on his way. Star-director-writer-producer-musician Viggo Mortensen pulls his weight there, making McLeod the nastiest bad guy in memory. Frank Faylen, in WHISPERING SMITH, shooting people just to see them jump, seems neighborly by comparison.

Ah but there's more. The frontier proves to be in the hands of avaricious land grabbers with a side line in vice. The admirable Danny Huston's speech about expanding the one saloon to house "sporting ladies" sets the tone. There's Ray McKinnon's bought judge contrasted with the indignant girl who has to be silenced when she is the one person to stand and speak out in his court or the appalled town doctor who refuses to charge for his ominous visit. There is a complete world here, one that's subtly different from the ones we know from earlier films, more savage, more connected to the earth.

Mortenson is really good with performers. Putting him opposite now star of the moment Vicky Krieps makes this one compulsory viewing. We first see her bored with the well dressed suitor who will not stand for that, dismissing her as "not the freshest either." It sets her up nicely as the idealised frontier woman, a suitable mate to roll in manure with fellow European migrant, war veteran Mortenson.

The film is full of nice pieces of staging - Viggo initiating his courtship by offering Krieps a slice of salmon on the flat of his Bowie knife, the pair of them reaching the isolated house he has used his carpenter skills to build in what seems an inexplicable choice among all the empty Nevada land ("What do you do?" "As little as possible.") her dropping her two bags as she faces the horses she has loaded her chair onto, - even the lamp wick dimming after the assault. He manages the use of the convincing Heaven's Gate-like setting - boots ringing on the timber board walks, the shadow of the rain on window glass falling on faces or scenic panoramas like the striking (Mexican) rock outcrops that telegraph the fact that we are going to see bullets impacting them.

Viggo has kind of crept up on us, doing support parts in conspicuous movies for forty years until he became someone whose efforts automatically rated our attention. I hate to say that there's too much Viggo here but as a producer, he should have congratulated himself on his stringed instrument skills, gone off to one side and told himself director Viggo needs more editing discipline.

The DEAD DON'T HURT is plagued by unwelcome elaboration. Throwing the military medal off the cliff just doubles up on the lead's view of the Civil war, moving from "fighting against slavery" to "not what I expected." The whole flashback structure just makes it hard to follow and dissipates the action movie energy. The knight in armor is mystifying at first and dim when it's explained - the Indian girl with the fish? Joan of Arc?

Somewhere buried in the over-length The Dead DON'T HURT there is a superior, atmospheric example waiting to take its place in the new cycle of ultra sadistic westerns, along with The BONE TOMYHAWK or The HATEFUL EIGHT I kind of feel I was cheated out of it.

And trust me when I say I did not like saying that. I really hoped this would be something along the lines of The power of the dog, another low key, slow thoughtful western but sadly it wasn't in the same league. The characters weren't overly fleshed out, the most important part of the plot did not make a whole lot of sense. Why would you take a woman back to the remote place that you live only to leave. In the end the independent lady had to become a victim she couldn't be left alone after all, she needed a man to look after her. And finally we get to a revenge movie and even that is reached at a walk. Overall quite forgettable I am sorry to say.