The Dead Don’t Hurt (2024 in Spain)

The Plot of The Dead Don’t Hurt: There are flashbacks and flash forwards, all of which I am ignoring. Holgar Olsen, a Danish immigrant and veteran of European wars lives as a carpenter in a small house out side a small town, Elk Falls. He decides to travel and goes to San Francisco where he meets a young woman, Vivienne Le Coudy and they fall in love. They return to the shack outside the town and Holgar continues to work, Vivienne getting a job in the local saloon with the approval of the part owner, Alfred Jeffries. Jeffries son, Weston, is the local ner’do well. On a call for soldiers to support the Union in the civil war, Olsen joins up and rides away. Vivienne continues to work in the bar, even after being raped by Weston, that is until she gives birth to a son. Olsen returns as a sergeant on a beautiful horse, but is surprised to find that his wife has a son. However, he and Vivienne get along and he becomes sheriff. Vivienne dies and he finds that she has been given syphilis by Weston. Weston meanwhile has killed numerous people in the town, including the piano player and the deputy. Olsen gives up his badge and rides away with his son, but it is not all over.

Content: There is no actual sex depicted although Olsen and Vivienne are seen in bed and the start of the rape is shown, Vivienne managing to cut Weston’s face with a shard of pottery. Vivienne is seen dying and Olsen digs her grave. Weston is heard firing his six gun and out in the street shoots the deputy. Olsen and Vivienne meet in San Francisco and become lovers. They make their life in the shack, she making a bit of a garden, he doing rough carpentry. There are various confrontations between Weston and others, including his father.  Olsen is appointed sheriff, but does nothing.

A View: I am generally cautious about writer/directors because there is no alternative view, and even more cautious about writer/director/star and music composer. And so it has turned out. Despite Mortensen’s extensive and excellent work in many films, he does not seem to have taken on board the dramatic tricks employed by screen writers to keep us interested. As a result this is a dull film, and even with the gratuitous flash backs and forward, does not engage. So despite the atmospheric presentation it is not a watch, even while doing something else.

Fun Fact: At one point Jeffries says to his son “you’re as crazy as a shithouse rat”. I tried to find out why shithouse rats might be crazy. Nobody knows.