The Dead Don't Hurt

The Dead Don't Hurt

In the 1860s, fiercely independent French-Canadian Vivienne Le Coudy embarks on a journey with Danish immigrant Holger Olsen, attempting to forge a life together in the dusty town of Elk Flats, Nevada. When Holger decides to go fight for the Union in the burgeoning Civil War, Vivienne must fend for herself, which isn't easy in a town controlled by a corrupt mayor.

  • Released:
  • Runtime: 130 minutes
  • Genre: Drama, Western
  • Stars: Garret Dillahunt, W. Earl Brown, Viggo Mortensen, Vicky Krieps, Danny Huston, Ray McKinnon, Solly McLeod, Alex Breaux, Michael Weaver, Nadia Litz, Colin Morgan, Luke Reilly, Atlas Green
  • Director: Viggo Mortensen
 Comments
  • kevinsadler-45246 - 15 June 2024
    A Love story disguised as a Western
    Firstly , if you are expecting to see a shoot em up style western then this isn't for you .....the story follows 2 immigrant Americans that meet by chance and follows their lives together and the woman's life when he goes off to fight in the Civil War. It's done slowly and with purpose with amazing acting from all concerned. The cinematography as beautiful and the music is both understated but totally right for such a movie. Mortesen has produced an obvious labour of love and done it exquisitely with himself and his fellow lead Vicky Krieps delivering great performances. My only criticism of the movie is that the jumping backwards and forwards in time does happen a little too often , so you have to keep your concentration levels going til the end.....but overall a great movie with a beautiful love story at its heart.
  • malmevik77 - 7 June 2024
    He tried, but I found the characters too one dimensional
    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.
  • filmtravel101 - 20 May 2024
    Pleasant Western that captures daily life in 19th century
    It is always a pleasure to see Viggo Mortensen in a film, especially when he's directing and writing. He Definitely does a great job of capturing what it was like to live back in the 19th century West and the same time a very unique perspective of an independent woman from the city that Brings her own virtues and destiny to wild country with life's lessons and superb acting by his co star.

    The cinematography music and acting is top notch and there is very little that is missing from this film, except for the hard to believe aspect that Viggo's Holgar Olsen character having lost a prior wife by going to war, so it's difficult to imagine his character is stubborn and stupid enough to commit the same mistake and end up with worse repercussions that are hard to swallow. Yet maybe that's the unique aspect of the story that some men never learn yet keep loving regardless of their human nature and desire to experience war and its consequences.

    However it is a beautiful tale that might be appealing to some that Like seeing the simplistic lifestyle people lived back in those days and it has enough twist and turns to make it commendable with a few big surprises and is more of a character study. The flashbacks are the only bit that is a little confusing almost like an afterthought and that is probably the only aspect that felt lacking in scope but it plays out fine in the end.

    I'm looking forward to seeing what next film Viggo creates as they seem to be getting better so kudos to all the actors and Viggo for a great job and enjoyable film and loved the multiple languages which is rare in a western film as few people actually spoke English as a primary language so that was refreshing.

    7 stars.