Films at HEART: The Dead Don’t Hurt

They’ve been making westerns for over a hundred years, and revisionist westerns are almost as old as the genre itself. Indeed, filmmakers were interrogating and reinterpreting the tropes of the western almost as quickly as those tropes were being set — which means its hard to do something new. If Viggo Mortensen’s The Dead Don’t Hurt didn’t tread entirely new territory, then it certainly felt fresh, current and worthwhile upon its release in 2023.

Mortensen, best known for his portrayal of Aragorn in Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings films, writes, directs, stars and composes the score for the film, enriching a classical tale of love and revenge with a grounded, naturalistic grace. Set on the American frontier in the 1860s, the multi-hyphenate talent plays Holger Olsen, a dashing Danish frontiersman who woos independent, cosmopolitan Franco-Canadian, Vivienne Le Coudy (Vicky Krieps, Phantom Thread), and persuades her to leave town with him to live in a cabin in remote northern Nevada.

When the American Civil War breaks out, Holger volunteers for combat and leaves to fight. Only, instead of following him into battle, the film remains behind with Vivienne. It’s one of a few unexpected moves, as Mortensen chooses to focus on the realities of life for a woman left alone on the frontier. Like many women at home during wartime, she has to tend their smallholding, take up outside work and contend with the unwanted advances of men who see her as alone and defenceless.

This being the American West circa the mid-1800s, she’s also left for long periods awaiting news of Holger’s status, who is portrayed as an adventurer, quick to sign up for war. The choice to focus on the minutiae of Vivienne’s life without Holger feels quietly radical, while the range of accents and languages spoken throughout is refreshing and of course, entirely representative of frontier life. Such details aren’t always present in these stories, which too often emphasise the “reality” of the violence they’re depicting at the expense of the rest of the world of the film.

Perhaps a little undervalued on its 2023 release, we’re happy to see The Dead Don’t Hurt has some legs and welcome the screening at HEART this November.