The Dead Don't Hurt (2023) - Once Upon a Time in a Western

Viggo Mortensen is Holger Olsen, a Danish immigrant who visits San Francisco and meets Vivienne Le Coudy (Vicky Krieps).

She’s a pretty French Canadian who makes her living selling flower arrangements. She’s also grown weary of the courtship of a boorish, gentleman artist.

Olsen is independent and strong-willed, just like her. He reminds Vivienne a bit of her father, who headed off to war when she was young and never returned.

So Olson and Vivienne strike up an immediate relationship. And when he leaves San Francisco, Vivienne makes the rash decision to follow him to his home near Elk Flats, Nevada.

She’s shocked when she first sets eyes on his desolate home, with no trees surrounding it and no flowers in sight.

But they join forces to turn it into a home they can both enjoy while he does carpentry jobs for nearby ranchers and she takes a job at Kendall’s, the only saloon in Elk Flats.

Trouble comes with the Civil War. Or rather when Olsen decides it’s his duty to enlist.

Left alone, Vivienne is suddenly more vulnerable, especially to the lecherous and violent Weston Jeffries (Solly McLeod), son of the richest man around.

When Olsen returns from the war, he finds a home much changed. And a son clinging to Vivienne’s side — a son she failed to mention in the solitary letter he received from her while off fighting.

Vicky Krieps as Vivienne Le Coudy, meeting a footloose rascal named Holger Olsen on the docks in San Francisco in The Dead Don’t Hurt (2023)

Viggo Mortensen as Holger Olsen, sitting by the dock in San Francisco when Vivienne Le Coudy passes by in The Dead Don’t Hurt (2023)

Review:

“The Dead Don’t Hurt” sounds like a great Spaghetti Western title, right? Thing is, this film is about as far from the Spaghetti West as you can get.

There are no mass shoot-outs. No special weapons. No twisting, tumbling, torturous dances of death. No double dealing. At least not involving the main characters.

Instead we get a beautifully filmed, well-acted Western that comes across as a pleasant surprise, even if it isn’t chock full of traditional Western action.

Here, the focus is squarely on the relationship between Mortensen’s Holger Olsen and Krieps’ Vivienne Le Coudy.

And while Mortensen in the central character on screen when the film opens and closes, one could argue it’s Krieps’ character who provides the film’s heartbeat.

Vivienne’s also the source of the flashback upon flashback approach to story-telling that helps set the film apart. But one can’t help wondering if the movie might have packed more of an emotional wallop if her fate hadn’t been revealed in the film’s opening scene.

In addition to directing, Mortensen wrote and scored the film. He had already starred in a pair of Westerns, “Hidalgo” (2004) and “Appaloosa” (2008). According to IMDb, he only stepped into the lead role here after another actor dropped out.

Western fans will also spot three cast members who appeared in the acclaimed TV series “Deadwood.” There’s Garret Dillahunt as town boss Alfred Jeffries and W. Earl Brown as bar owner Kendall. The former played Jack McCall and Francis Wolcott in “Deadwood;” the latter Dan Dority.

Ray McKinnon, Rev. H.W. Smith in that show, has a wonderful brief part here as a judge. He presides over the trial of an innocent man about to be sentenced to death.

Solly McLeod as Weston Jeffries, making a late-night visit to Vivienne Le Cody’s home in The Dead Don’t Hurt (2023)

Garrett Dillahunt as Alfred Jeffires, a rich man intending to turn Elk Flats into his ‘honeypot’ in The Dead Don’t Hurt (2023)

Directed by:
Viggo Mortensen

Cast:
Viggo Mortensen … Holger Olsen
Vicky Krieps … Vivienne Le Coudy
Solly McLeod … Weston Jeffries
Garret Dillahunt … Alfred Jeffries
W. Earl Brown … Alan Kendall
Danny Huston … Rudolph Schiller
Shane Graham … Billy Crossley
Rafel Plana … Claudio Garcia
Ray McKinnon … Judge Balgden
Nadia Litz … Martha Gilkyson
Atlas Green … Little Vincent
Alex Breaux … Ed Wilkins
Eliana Michaud … Young Vivienne

Runtime: 129 min.

Danny Huston as Rudolph Schiller, mayor of Elk Flats, conspiring with Alfred Jeffries to capitalize on a silver strike near town in The Dead Don’t Hurt (2023)

Vicky Krieps as Vivienne Le Coudy, reacting as Holger Olsen rides off to fight for the Union in the Civil War in The Dead Don’t Hurt (2023)

Memorable lines:

Vivienne Le Coudy, surveying Holger Olsen’s home: “No flowers. No garden at all. You live like a dog.”
Holger Olsen: “A happy dog.”

Holger Olsen: “I’m thinking about enlisting.”
Vivienne Le Coudy: “This is not your problem. This is not your country.”
Olsen: “It’s the right thing to do.”

Alfred Jeffries to his son Weston: “It is a huckleberry above my perception to decipher how you turned out so ornery … You’re crazier that a shit-house rat.”

Holger Olsen, having announced he’s joining the Union Army: “Be my wife. Please.”
Vivienne Le Coudy, angry over that decision: “You cannot make things right with a consolation prize.”

Holger Olsen, as he prepares to depart: “I’ll come back as soon as possible.”
Vivienne Le Coudy: “Good.”
Olsen: “I’ll miss you.”
Vivienne: “I hope so.”

Vivienne Le Coudy, upon Holger’s return from fighting: “How was your war?”
Holger Olsen: “Too long. Not what I expected. How was yours?”