The Dead Don't Hurt

Beautiful story about the love of two outsiders in the countryside, where they just want to survive and build a home, and trying to keep the distance from the archetypical western "heroes". Wonderfully photographed tale, and Viggo Mortensen did his best as a director, actor, writer and composer. Sometimes, it's a bit too slow, otherwise, I appreciate that they didn't fill the story with common cowboy stuffs and self-serving violance - Mortensen's movie isn't about the danger and corruption of the west, but about independence and strong, unique connection between lovers. I really like the middle part, where the film switched to Vivienne's subjective perspective.

The frame of this film is ingenious, beautiful landscapes and most of the score played by a string ensemble with piano. Acting is also great with the main characters saying more with their glances than a thousand words.

The negative thing is this film takes ages to get to the meat of the plot, namely when Olsen leaves Vivienne to rejoin the army consecutively showing what happens to her while he's away.

Just before that we were at the point to stand up from our seats and leave the cinema hall. Luckily I held on to my principle to watch films to the end, even if they're bad, so in the end we had an enjoyable afternoon at the cinema.

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.

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.

Set during the American West, Danish carpenter and sheriff of Elf Flats, Holger Olsen (Viggo Mortensen) mourns the loss of his French Canadian wife Vivienne Le Coudy (Vicky Krieps) and rides off with their son Vincent (Atlas Green). As the two ride westward, we learn the circumstances which brought Vivienne and Holger together and the tragic circumstances that ultimately befell them.

The Dead Don't Hurt is the sophomore directorial feature for Viggo Mortensen after 2020's Falling which also sees him write, score, and co-star in the film. Mortensen said his aim was to create a character study of a resilient woman in the time of the old west and found the performer in Vicky Krieps who is very much front and center here. The Dead Don't Hurt is a very slow and methodical film (even by the standards of Westerns which are traditionally more deliberately paced) but for those willing to put in the time they will be rewarded with an engaging character study with a strong but tragic emotional payoff.

In terms of structure, The Dead Don't Hurt let's the audience know from the outset exactly what kind of mood they're in for as we see from the opening where Vivienne's story regrettably ends up. While the opening act features what feels like a very traditional western opening with Mortensen's Holger stoicly burying his wife and then turning in his sheriff's badge to the mayor before riding off, Mortensen throws the audience for a loop by often flashing back to the past to tell Vivienne's story in how she met and built a life with Holger in a subversion of the Western revenge narrative which the film deconstructs. Vicky Krieps is fantastic in the role of Vivienne as she carries a quiet sadness from the loss of her fur trapper father as a child and her relationship with Holger is well constructed in that the gentle but slightly hardened manner in which Holger carries himself reminds her of what she once saw in her father. The movie takes many elements familiar to traditional westerns but plays them in a more low key setting where the ugliness of the situation is more cold and matter of fact as land grabs and saloon brawls are often more one sided with justice seldom if ever delivered. Solly McLeod is positioned as the closest thing we have to a villain storywise as he creates a truly reprehensible sadist and bully whose bereft of any redeeming qualities and while there is a payoff for him Mortensen positions him as something pathetic and barely worth the time.

The Dead Don't Hurt is not an easy sit as it is very deliberately paced and places more focus on character and atmosphere than narrative or drive, but it's a very raw and uncompromising look at the struggles of a family during the American west and their resilience in the face of hardship even as tragedy overcame them.