The Dead Don’t Hurt

The Dead Don't Hurt is a 2023 Western film written, directed, and produced by Viggo Mortensen, and starring Mortensen, Vicky Krieps, Solly McLeod, Garret Dillahunt, Colin Morgan, Ray McKinnon, Luke Reilly, Atlas Green, and Danny Huston. Mortensen also composed the score to the film. It is a co-production between Canada, Denmark and Mexico.
The Dead Don't Hurt premiered at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival on September 8, 2023. It had a theatrical release in North America on May 31, 2024, and was released in Denmark on June 13, 2024. The film received generally favourable reviews from critics.
== Plot ==
In 1860s San Francisco, Franco-Canadian Vivienne Le Coudy is aggressively courted by a rich Irish art collector. To escape his smothering attention, she falls in love with Danish immigrant carpenter Holger Olsen, and goes with him to his remote cabin in northern Nevada. Highlighting her independent streak, she refuses to marry Olsen and gets a job as a barmaid in the nearby town of Elk Flats, a town dominated by corrupt landowner Alfred Jeffries and his alcoholic son Weston. When Olsen joins the Union Army, which has begun to fight the Civil War, his absence leaves room for Weston to try and seduce Vivienne; he eventually corners and violently rapes her. In subsequent scenes, she is shown pregnant and eventually bears a son.
When Olsen returns from the Civil War after several years, the son named Vincent is about five years old. When Vivienne tells Olsen about the rape, he instantly wants to find and murder Weston until she tells him that Weston had been forced to leave town after murdering several people. Olsen, Vivienne, and Vincent live for a while in peace, but she dies after a short illness diagnosed by a doctor as syphilis. Taking his son, Olsen hunts down Weston in the wilderness and injures him, leaving him to die. Thereafter Olsen and Vincent ride west until they reach the Pacific Ocean.
== Cast ==
== Release ==
HanWay Films handles sales for the film worldwide. The Dead Don't Hurt premiered at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival on September 8, 2023.Anthony D'Alessandro, "TIFF Lineup Unveiled Amid Strikes: Awards Contenders Dumb Money, The Holdovers, Rustin; Starry Pics For Sale With Scarlett Johansson, Kate Winslet, Michael Keaton, Viggo Mortensen & More". Deadline Hollywood, July 24, 2023.
In February 2024, Shout! Studios acquired North American distribution rights to the film. It was released in Canada, Mexico and the United States on May 31, 2024, and in the United Kingdom by Signature Entertainment on June 7, 2024. It was released in Denmark by Scanbox Entertainment on June 13, 2024.
== Reception ==
 
Peter Debruge of Variety wrote, "How many partners have attached themselves to someone else's dream, then had to adapt when it proves disappointing? Films rarely frame that experience from the woman's perspective, which makes Mortensen's enlightened approach fairly refreshing, even if Vivienne's independence manifests itself in a way that anyone can sense is bad news".
== External links ==
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== References ==
Category:2023 films
Category:American Civil War films
Category:Canadian Western (genre) films
Category:Danish Western (genre) films
Category:Mexican Western (genre) films
Category:Films set in San Francisco
Category:Films shot in British Columbia
Category:Films shot in Mexico
Category:Films shot in Ontario
Category:Recorded Picture Company films
Category:English-language Danish films
Category:English-language Mexican films