I'm astonished and appalled at the low score for this film. As a long-time fan of Walter Hill's work, I'd call this one of his best.
Starting with the title, Dead for a Dollar is a film that never goes quite where you might expect. It takes its time, savors its oddball characters and immerses the viewer in its old-time locations.
Hill loses no opportunity to subvert our expectations. Willem Dafoe takes the lead at first, but we're never quite sure if he's going to be the hero or the villain. All the more surprising when Christopher Waltz takes over, playing a bounty hunter who seems to be neither hero nor villain. Meanwhile, Rachel Brosnan is perfect as a heroine who doesn't need as much protecting as we might expect. (Reminiscent especially of the heroine of the Coen's 2008 True Grit - simultaneously tough and vulnerable.)
There's no fat here - this film builds methodically to a climactic shoot-out that takes traditional formulae and subverts them. Hill carefully builds atypical characters, then allows them to work things out in their own unique yet realistic way.
I'd rate Dead for a Dollar in the same league as Open Range in 2003, or Appaloosa in 2008. These latter-day films offer all the virtues of the top old-time western: strong characters, big moral choices, and the romance of the wild days of the west. But they overlay a modern sensibility, go deeper into the moral and dramatic situations, take realism and historical accuracy further than before. Like Kevin Costner and Ed Harris, Walter Hill reinvents the western. He brings his own style, and takes the action in a new direction.
No, this isn't Randolph Scott's west, or John Wayne's... or Clint Eastwood's. This is Walter Hill country, and he makes it memorable.
Starting with the title, Dead for a Dollar is a film that never goes quite where you might expect. It takes its time, savors its oddball characters and immerses the viewer in its old-time locations.
Hill loses no opportunity to subvert our expectations. Willem Dafoe takes the lead at first, but we're never quite sure if he's going to be the hero or the villain. All the more surprising when Christopher Waltz takes over, playing a bounty hunter who seems to be neither hero nor villain. Meanwhile, Rachel Brosnan is perfect as a heroine who doesn't need as much protecting as we might expect. (Reminiscent especially of the heroine of the Coen's 2008 True Grit - simultaneously tough and vulnerable.)
There's no fat here - this film builds methodically to a climactic shoot-out that takes traditional formulae and subverts them. Hill carefully builds atypical characters, then allows them to work things out in their own unique yet realistic way.
I'd rate Dead for a Dollar in the same league as Open Range in 2003, or Appaloosa in 2008. These latter-day films offer all the virtues of the top old-time western: strong characters, big moral choices, and the romance of the wild days of the west. But they overlay a modern sensibility, go deeper into the moral and dramatic situations, take realism and historical accuracy further than before. Like Kevin Costner and Ed Harris, Walter Hill reinvents the western. He brings his own style, and takes the action in a new direction.
No, this isn't Randolph Scott's west, or John Wayne's... or Clint Eastwood's. This is Walter Hill country, and he makes it memorable.