Viggo Mortensen’s new movie breaks 16-year career trend

Viggo Mortensen’s latest film The dead don’t get hurtaudiences will see this actor in a Western movie for the first time in Appaloosa 2008. Mortensen continues to be a versatile actor and a renaissance man. Lord of the Ring The early 2000s saw a rise in the variety of genres being produced, from classic westerns to adventure westerns, but Mortensen has stayed away from westerns and has worked on a variety of other projects. Green Book Film adaptations of famous novels such as “The Last Jedi” (2018) and “Thirteen Lives” (2022) have also been produced. road (2009) and on the road (2012) — He’s never stuck to one type of film.

Despite his wide vocal range, The dead don’t get hurt It will be one of the few westerns Mortensen has worked on since the start of his film career. witness (1985), and this time he serves as screenwriter, director and composer. The dead don’t get hurt It’s a surprising and intelligent western that both subverts and respects the long-standing traditions of that distinctively American genre.

Viggo Mortensen’s Western career has spanned decades

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Mortensen is, of course, best known for his role as Aragorn. Lord of the Ring Director Peter Jackson initially considered Irish actor Stuart Townsend for the role, but decided Townsend was too young for the role, instead casting Mortensen as the future King of Gondor. J.R.R. Tolkien fans agree that Mortensen is perfect for the role. In a recent interview, he even said he’d be open to reprising the role in the next series. Gollum Hunt, Andy Serkis will direct, though nothing has been confirmed yet.

rear The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) Mortensen Hidalgo (2004). Distributed by Disney’s Buena Vista Pictures. Hidalgo The film is based on the real-life equestrian Frank Hopkins, who appeared in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show in the late 1800s and was promoted in the film as “the greatest endurance horse and rider in the world.” In the film, Hopkins travels to Arabia to race his horse, Hidalgo, against purebred Arabian horses. The film was shot on an epic scale and barely made back its $100 million budget.

Front and rear Hidalgo, Mortensen began appearing in westerns. His first film was Young Guns II (1990), in which he played real historical figure John William Poe, a sheriff who was an associate of Pat Garrett’s in pursuit of Billy the Kid. Young Guns II 1988 Young Guns Starring Emilio Estevez, Kiefer Sutherland, Lou Diamond Phillips, Charlie Sheen, and Dermot Mulroney, the film was moderately well received by audiences upon its release, ranking third at the box office during its opening weekend.

Mortensen never appeared in a Western again. Appaloosa. The film is based on the 2005 novel of the same name by mystery writer Robert B. Parker, and tells the story of two men who are hired to circumvent the laws of a small town, only to find themselves threatened by the whims of a rancher played by Jeremy Irons. Appaloosa The film also stars Ed Harris and Renée Zellweger, and was produced, directed, and co-written by Harris. In an interview at the film’s Hollywood premiere, Mortensen said about returning to a Western: “I love horseback riding, and I love Westerns, but I’m not just going to do a Western. If it’s a good movie, I’d like to do it. If it’s a good story, and this was a great script.”

The Dead Don’t Heart walks the line between traditional and “spaghetti” westerns

• The dead don’t get hurt The film bucks the trend of most Westerns by placing a woman named Vivian (Vicky Krieps) at the center of the story.

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The dead don’t get hurt In many ways, the film pays homage to traditional Westerns and is unconventional in others. NPR critic Justin Chang wrote:

“One of the many charms of The Dead Don’t Heart is that it’s not immediately clear whether it’s aiming for an old-fashioned Western or a revisionist Western. The film features many familiar genre tropes, like men riding horses across a rugged landscape and a bloody saloon shootout…”

The film even plays with the timeline, beginning with the heroine Vivian (Vicky Krieps) dying of syphilis at the end of the story, then jumping back and forth between the beginning of her story and her partner Holger Olsen (Mortensen) coming to terms with her death. It may take a while for the audience to work out how Mortensen is manipulating time, but it’s done expertly.

The revisionist westerns that Chang referenced in his review generally began with the “spaghetti” westerns of the 1960s and 1970s, according to the Spaghetti Western Database.

“The name Spaghetti Western comes from the fact that most of them were directed and produced by Italians, with co-productions with other European countries, especially Spain and Germany. Originally the name ‘Spaghetti Western’ was a derogatory term given to these films by foreign critics who considered them inferior to American Westerns.”

movie Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) and High Plains Drifter (1973) deconstructed the simpler themes of the earlier Westerns popular in the 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. The lines between “good guys” and “bad guys” were blurred, and the endings were not always pleasant or easy to understand. As a result, modern Westerns often waver between following the traditions of the earlier Westerns and subverting the later Westerns. Examples include: Abandoned (2015) starring Kiefer and Donald Sutherland as estranged father and son. Slow West (2015), starring Michael Fassbender.

While talking about the film, Mortensen also spoke about other ways he bucked genre trends. In an interview with CBR, Mortensen said of the film’s protagonist, Vivian:

“She’s the central character of the story. That’s rare in Westerns – for a woman to be the central character of the story. Our film looks and feels like the classic Westerns I watched as a kid. And when her male partner goes off to war, she stays with him. I’d never seen anything like that. I was just asking myself: ‘What happens to her?’ Even today, it’s not that common to tell a story from a woman’s point of view.”

The film keeps the audience guessing as to whether the apparent villain, Weston Jeffries (Solly MacLeod), will receive his comeuppance, a quintessential Western. The film’s tone veers between hopeful optimism and tragic reality, portraying the gritty realities of the real American West in the 1800s. Ultimately, it veers somewhere in between, giving the audience a satisfying ending and bittersweet resolution.

The Dead Don’t Heart is not Viggo Mortensen’s first film to write and direct.

• This marks Viggo Mortensen’s debut as director, composer and screenwriter. Fall (2020).
• Mortensen has an extensive discography and bibliography.

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The dead don’t get hurt This won’t be Mortensen’s debut as a writer, director or composer – he first accomplished all three with the 2020 film Star Wars: Episode I: The Final Battle. Fall, He plays a middle-aged gay man dealing with his father’s gradual decline into dementia. As he told CBR in an interview: Fall and The dead don’t get hurt Mortensen draws elements from his own life – his own mother’s experiences were a major influence on both films – but he makes it clear that his real life only served as a starting point rather than outright influencing the formation of the entire story.

Prior to his latest endeavors, Mortensen has demonstrated his artistic skills in areas other than acting. Lord of the Ring Though it premiered alongside the film’s DVD release, it’s known that Mortensen was involved with the film’s music: Like his co-star Billy Boyd (Pippin), Mortensen wrote his own songs from Tolkien’s poems, including “Lúthien’s Song” and “The Oath of Elendil,” which Aragorn sings at his coronation. Return of the KingMortensen also has an impressive discography of his own, having published numerous books of poetry, photography, and art.

Though Mortensen has stated that he wasn’t naturally drawn to Westerns, it’s interesting that he chose the genre as the setting for his latest artistic endeavor. He has contributed to a popular American film genre by delivering a sensitive, yet traditional, Western that will go down in history as one of the best Westerns ever made. Though a little slow in places, this is definitely worth a watch for anyone wanting a modern take on the classic Western.

The Dead Don’t Heart is now showing in theaters nationwide.

The Dead Don’t Heart (2023)

Set in the 1860s, the story follows Vivienne Le Coudi, a fiercely independent French-Canadian who begins a relationship with Danish immigrant Holger Olsen.

director

Viggo Mortensen

release date

September 8, 2023

cast

Vicky Krieps, Viggo Mortensen, Solly McLeod, Garret Dillahunt, W. Earl Brown, Danny Huston, Shane Graham, Rafel Plana

Writer

Viggo Mortensen

runtime

129 min

Expanding