THE DEAD DON'T HURT

US, 2024, 129 minutes, Colour.

Vicki Krieps, Viggo Mortensen, Solly McLeod, Garrett Delahunt,.W. Earl Brown, Danny Huston, Shane Graham, Rafel Plana, Atlas Green, Ray McKinnon.

Directed by Viggo Mortensen.

Now veteran actor, Viggo Mortensen, became a household name when he appeared in the Lord of the Rings trilogy as Aragorn. Mortensen is not only an actor, he is a writer, musician, composer, and has brought all these talents to directing The Dead Don’t Hurt.

In fact, the setting is in the West during the American Civil War. However, the action takes place on the Nevada border and the war itself seems distant. Which means that the film is set in the West, its saloon, gamblers, sheriff, shootouts, but the story is told in such a way that it could take place at any time.

The film opens, significantly because of his title, with a death. There is also a violent shootout in the streets, a court case, a lynching execution. But we have to pay attention because the film moves both forward and with flashbacks, important for the audience to gauge which is which to appreciate the characters and the dramatic development. Sometimes this is something of a challenge.

But, in the flashbacks, we are introduced to Olson, Scandinavian background, arriving in a port, eager to make his way in America. But, the audience has also had a long introduction to a young girl, Vivienne, French background, her father executed by the British, a forthright young girl with an imagination (including a Knight in armour coming to visit her, a scene with which the film opens and will recur). Olson and Vivienne hit it off immediately, some comeuppance to an arrogant young suitor in the town, and they travel to the Nevada border, setting up house, Olson a capable builder, working for some of the money men, profits from gambling, in the local town.

Vivienne is played by Vicki Krieps, the core of the drama and our emotional response.

Audiences need to keep checking on the timespan. After a while, there is a visit and plea from a recruiting agent for serving in the war, Olson, despite Vivienne’s protests, volunteering to go, absent for many years, some letters getting through, some not.

At the dramatic centre of the film is Vivienne’s coping during Olson’s absence, the working in the local bar, hired by the moneyed man, but aggravated by his irresponsible sociopathic son. There are dire consequences for everyone concerned and, gradually, the storytelling arrives back at the violence in the streets, and at the death and dying scene we first saw.

As expected, ultimately, this is also an avenging Western.

The film is intriguing, playing with the audience’s appreciation of characters and story, the interplay and tension between the past and the present – and, with the death, the irony of the title and its implication that The Living Do Hurt.

1. The title? Evocative? The opening, Vivienne and her death, the flashbacks, her life and death?
2. A variation on Western themes? The era of the Civil War? The Nevada border? Migrants, experiences of war, our, mining, gambling, our in the West?
3. The location photography, the beauty, the desert, rivers, ports? The musical score?
4. Setting of mood with the opening, the Knight in armour, in Vivienne’s dream, his reappearing during the film, echoes of Joan of Arc, his appearing, reassuring, at her death? Focus on Vivienne’s face, Olsen and his grief?
5. The violent episode in the town, at Weston Jeffries, cold, calculating, arrogant, the shootings, the death of Billy? The response of the Mayor, going to the grave, Olsen burying his wife, Vincent present, the story of the violence in the town?
6. Court case, the victim for the killings, the religious righteousness of he judge, the woman in the court defiant, guilty verdict, the hanging? Olsen observing and leaving?
7. Olsen and Vincent leaving, riding through the countryside?
8. Audiences adjusting to the time sequence, the bulk of the film being flashback, the story of Vivienne, French, her parents, the war, her father hanged? In the Port, the relationship with the wealthy man, his treatment of her in the restaurant, her defiance, her attraction to Olsen, talking, going off with him, taking him to the house, the art gallery? Forming a bond?
9. Olsen in the town, his background, war? Travelling with Vivienne, the land, setting up, his building talent, working on the other barns? Vivienne upset at first, the flowers and trees, their life together? Her going to work in the bar, the older Jeffries and his power, the discussions with the mayor, the financial deals, the gambling, the adjacent houses, prostitution? The manager of the bar, some integrity? Weston Jeffries in the bar, his arrogance? The violent episode with Weston Jeffries and the piano player, the song, the brutality, commanding him to play? Vivienne and later support of the pianist, his family, the daughter, learning French?
10. Olsen, the Civil War, the recruiter in the bar, his deciding to join the Army, Vivienne and her upset, his leaving? Away for so many years, the letters, some received, some not?
11. Vivienne, managing, the house, her independence, at the bar? Weston Jeffries following her, her cat in cutting, the violent rape, the aftermath, in the bar?
12. Her pregnancy, giving birth, the child, the years passing, the bond between mother and son? Life in the town? Olsen and his eventual return, the important sequence revealing the child, Vivienne quietly spoken, Olsen and his response, leaving, in the river, swimming? His anger at Jeffries?
13. The boy, his manner, with Olsen, the acceptance, the building and Olsen showing his son how to hammer? The possible good life?
14. The request for Olsen to become sheriff, the discussion with the Mayor, his office? Billy and his delivering the letters, his becoming the assistant? But the audience knowing from the beginning what was to happen?
15. Vivienne, illness, syphilis, from Weston Jeffries, the dangers, her death and her vision? The burial?
16. Olsen and Vincent, riding, the encounter with Weston Jeffries, the guns, the confrontation, Olsen throwing the knife, overcoming him?
17. The story continuing, Olsen and Vincent arriving at the ocean, contemplating the ocean? Sadness, regrets, hopes?