‘The Dead Don’t Hurt’ Review: Viggo Mortensen’s Western About Women And The American Frontier
Western movies typically promote myths around the American frontier, and yet Viggo Mortensen’s “The Dead Don’t Hurt” has no interest in feeding into this mythology. Rather, it repurposes the frontier as a backdrop for a story about a woman trying to find her strength and power in a world ruled by men.
Mortensen wrote and directed “The Dead Don’t Hurt.” He also developed the music for the film and stars as the male lead character, Holger Olsen, a loner and a Danish immigrant.
The screenplay unfolds in a nonlinear manner with two parallel threads from the past and present. At least thematically, the threads converge during the final act of the film.
Mortensen opens the film with a shot of the French woman named Vivienne (Vicky Krieps) on her deathbed. It is unclear what made her sick, and Holger sits at her bedside holding her hand. Vivienne has a vision of what appears to be a knight in shining armor. With Holger’s back to the camera, the shot pulls away while Vivienne takes her last breath.
A thug named Weston (Solly McLeod) goes on a “bender” and kills several people, including the deputy sheriff. He is the son of Alfred Jeffries (Garret Dillahunt), who is essentially a cattle baron in the town of Elk Flats…
