Shadows on the Wall | Dead for a Dollar

Dead for a Dollar

dir-scr Walter Hill
prd Neil Dunn, Carolyn McMaster, Berry Meyerowitz, Jeff Sackman, Jeremy Wall
with Christoph Waltz, Willem Dafoe, Rachel Brosnahan, Benjamin Bratt, Warren Burke, Hamish Linklater, Brandon Scott, Guy Burnet, Scott Peat, Luis Chavez, Alfredo Quiroz, Fidel Gomez, Jackamoe Buzzell
release US 30.Sep.22
22/US Universal 1h54

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Choppy and vaguely cheesy, this colour-drained Western from veteran writer-director Walter Hill holds the attention with quirky characters and situations. There isn't much to the convoluted plot, no story arc to speak of and only cursory thematic touches. But the dusty imagery harks back to Sergio Leone, with added goofy echoes of Blazing Saddles. And it's great to see Christoph Waltz and Willem Dafoe casually chomp on the scenery.

In 1897 New Mexico, Martin (Linklater) hires bounty hunter Max (Waltz) to track down his wife Rachel (Brosnahan), who has been kidnapped by soldier Elijah (Scott). Teaming up with Elijah's friend Alonso (Burke), Max follows them into Mexico, where they have become entangled with local kingpin Tiberio (Bratt). And so has gunslinger Joe (Dafoe), an old nemesis who Max warned to stay away from him once he was released from prison. All of these desperadoes are heading for a showdown in an isolated town, and it's unlikely that any of them will walk away.

As the narrative rolls along, loyalties shift, promises are broken and people die suddenly. There's a loose, clumsy charm in the characters and their interaction, as everyone is bullheadedly doing his or her own thing regardless of what's happening around them. This makes everyone intriguing, and sometimes even sympathetic. And the continual nods to classic Westerns, filtered gently through pointed racial and gender-based themes, give us just a bit of gristle to chew on.

Waltz has the strongest role, as the no-nonsense Max dazzles everyone with his wry intelligence. His banter with Dafoe's more slippery Joe bristles with mutual respect and weary animosity. Brosnahan plays Rachel with an eerily straight face, but finds some proper steeliness that makes her anything but a victim (we learn early on that she orchestrated this fake abduction). And the side characters also have terrific presence, including a fearsome Bratt, perky Burke, sneery Linklater and an underused Scott as the story's soulful heart.

Along the way, there are quite a few superbly messy shootouts, a couple of tense card games and a crackling bullwhip duel between Alonso and Tiberio's nastiest goon (Peat). Hill is nodding sagely to a whole history of Hollywood Westerns while giving this film a grittier, more grounded edge. So it's a bit frustrating that the production has an awkward low-budget sheen to it, and the script feels somewhat undercooked. Just a little more thematic development might have made this a classic in its own right.

themes, language, violence 6.Sep.22 vff

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