Venice 2022: Dead for a Dollar
VENICE 2022After a 3-minute standing ovation for receiving the Cartier Glory To The Filmmaker award, Walter Hill said: “Gosh, I hope you’ll like the movie this much”. Laughter filled the Sala Grande, but quite a few audience members worriedly exchanged glances. The award was given right before the world premiere of Hill’s first western in 27 years, Dead for a Dollar. As beloved as the legendary American filmmaker is, his last few features have been far from inspiring and memorable, and this return to one of his favorite genres is far from good.
Among the opening logos there is the film’s distributor, Quiver Distribution, better known for releasing quite a few direct-to-video films with big names in the past couple of years, such as The Fanatic, Running with the Devil, and Money Plane. Dead for a Dollar falls very much in line with these features, as it utilizes a stacked cast and bankable filmmaker to deliver an otherwise cheap and dull genre piece.
Dead for a Dollar desperately wants to be a throwback to classical westerns from Ford and Hawks, and the story of a bounty hunter hired to find a white woman who may or may not have fled of her own volition with a black soldier has potential. There is a bit of revisionism going on, as Hill’s script attempts to break genre conventions by tackling themes of gender inequality and racism head first, but the result ends up being rather banal: the main female character is written as a contemporary feminist in the 1890s, and any semblance of anti-racist elements is quickly abandoned in favor of cheap genre thrills, as the Mexican villain has no more nuance than General Mapache from The Wild Bunch.
The production is expectedly lacking in any interesting composition, thought-out color grading, or standout music, falling in line with the average straight-to-video product that gets released nowadays. The only real appeal comes from its main cast, who manage to elevate the material thanks to good chemistry and effective line delivery. Christoph Waltz has a stoic John Wayne attitude as bounty hunter Max Borlund, Rachel Brosnahan proves that she is a formidable actress with as a bold and resolute teacher, while Willem Dafoe has the most fun out of everyone as back-stabbing gambler Joe Cribbens, getting the most memorable moments and one-liners. Shame that both Benjamin Bratt and Hamish Linklater are relegated to one-note baddies with barely enough screentime to register as threatening or despicable.
Fans of Walter Hill might get a kick out of this homage that eerily rings as a final ride for the now-octogenarian director. With more time and money, this could have been another solid entry in the canon of digitally-shot westerns that hearken back to the past. Sadly, that is not the case, making Dead for a Dollar one of the most forgettable films to premiere at the Venice Film Festival.