MovieChat Forums > The Dead Don't Hurt (2024) Discussion > A dragged out story about feminist victi...

A dragged out story about feminist victimhood that goes nowhere

posted 4 months ago by ribtin (151)
7 replies | jump to latest

Mortensen obviously wanted to tell a story about feminist martyrdom (You know the drill: Women are strong and clever and good, but fall victim to men who are stupid and evil, yada-yada-yada...) but it's just a bunch loosely connected threads, that doesn't really tie together.

There's not enough action to work as a standard western, it's not structured enough to work as a drama, and nothing truly peculiar about it to make it work as an arthouse flick.

[–] DoctorThirteen (13920) 4 months ago

The Dead Don't Hurt? That title makes it sound like a parody.

[–] agentalbert (3080) 3 months ago

I didn't think much of it either. I wanted to like it and expected to like it. I'm okay with the slow pace, but I don't think the time jumping helps the story. And while I'm typically fine with stories that don't resolve the way one would expect, I found this entire thing pretty unsatisfying. And the more I think about it the less I like it.

I saw this mostly for Vicky Krieps, who I think is very good. Even in movies I haven't really like (The Phantom Thread, for instance), I think she's a standout.

For recent Western's Costner's bomb "Horizon" is much better. I really enjoyed that.

[–] Filmtenk2 (4039) 3 months ago

Vivienne was a strong female character though. It was earned.

[–] ribtin (151) 2 months ago

Precisely! Mortensen's intention was obviously just to virtue signal by creating a "strong female character", as if that would somehow be worthwhile on its own.

[–] Filmtenk2 (4039) 2 months ago

The problem is shoehorning in poorly written female characters. I'm not against strong female characters in their entirety that would make films very boring.

Did you want a Western starring only Vigo Mortensen?

[–] liscarkat (18367) 2 months ago

It's not about "feminist victimhood", and once you understand that it has gone into an extended flashback and some flash forwards, it's easy to follow. You just have to pay attention.

[–] ribtin (151) a month ago

Whoosh!