‘Dead for a Dollar’ review: Walter Hill’s nostalgic Western is old-fashioned in good ways and bad [B] | Venice Film Festival

An entertaining B-movie rather than a serious, self-sufficient drama, Western schlockfest Dead for a Dollar justifies its nostalgic existence on the grounds that it allows Walter Hill to keep making movies. Something of a return to the New Hollywood legend’s pulpy genre beginnings, it stars Christoph Waltz as nihilistic bounty hunter Max Borlund and Rachel Brosnahan as Rachel Price, a captive wife who runs away with black soldier Elijah (Brandon Scott). Elijah and Rachel thus become subject to a“rescue” effort by Borlund.

Hill’s zany twist on that Searchers premise sets the tone for Dollar, which pokes fun  at its archetype characters, which also include “English Bill” (Guy Burnet), Mexican gang boss Triberio (Benjamin Bratt), and Rachel’s sour, scorned husband Martin Kidd (Hampshire Linklater). The other key performance is Willem Dafoe as Joe Cribbens, a newly freed bank robber seeking revenge against the self-employed bounty chaser who caught him. Cribbens throws a spanner in the works of Hill’s otherwise straightforward plot. Dafoe got the memo, yelling, throwing things and causing general chaos at every turn. He’s a delight.

A much less energetic performance is Waltz’s lead. Max is a mild-mannered expert just trying to do his job, but the German actor puts in a remarkably steadied performance, perhaps the quietest of his career. Some will find it sleepy. I think it’s a shrewd take on an enigmatic character surrounded by a more colourful bunch. You decide. Either way, by choice or not, Waltz fades into the background as Dafoe et al steal the show.

Yet Hill’s greatest problem is that the crisp digital look of Dead for a Dollar essentially exposes some pretty shoddy production design. (Think what even the better Spaghetti Westerns would look like under such scrutiny.) An early scene at Cribbins’s jail looks more like an Outback Steakhouse than a remote cell in the desert. Dafoe’s locked-in performance is good enough to trick you into believing most of what he says, but no acting can cover up a cheap set. 

If Hill and cinematographer Lloyd Ahern II (1994’s Last Man Standing) knew exactly what visual style they were going for, this might be more easily forgiven. But switches between shakiness and still shots within the first few minutes tease a level of visual chaos that never goes away. The depiction of Hill’s female characters (aside from an impressive Brosnahan) further leaves much to be desired, with a pair of examples of the sorts of gratuitous nudity we don’t see anymore, and shouldn’t. A Morricone-“inspired” score by Xander Rodzinski is also a constant reminder of Dead for a Dollar’s unapologetic derivativeness.

Still, there’s fun to be had here. Hill remains a strong action director: a twenty-minute shootout sequence to close out the film is predictably thrilling, with a handful of shots that evoke the director’s glory days. Dollar’s plot is also simple enough that his wacky characters have the time and space to leave a real impression. Though perhaps better suited for the first half of a double bill with a better movie, Dead for a Dollar is a welcome return for a living legend.

Grade: B

This review is from the 2022 Venice Film Festival. Dead for a Dollar releases September 30 from Quiver Distribution.