Dead for a Dollar

• Written and Directed by Walter Hill
• September 6, 2022 (Venice) / September 30, 2022 (US)

A bounty hunter searches for the wife of a businessman who ran off with a black man.

The first thing you’ll notice about Dead for a Dollar is that there is an almost sepia tint to the film as if you needed to be reminded that this was set in the Old West. I am betting it was done to distract the viewer’s brain from the budgetary limitations of the production. This is not extremely cheap, but I guarantee a sizable portion of the film’s budget was spent on stars Christoph Waltz and Willem Dafoe who play bounty hunter Max Borlund and recently released outlaw Joe Cribbens respectively.

Racism fuels a good chunk of this. From the first we are shown that despite making the rank of sergeant, Alonzo Poe (Warren Burke) is looked down upon by other soldiers with some of it connected to why he is assigned to Borlund. After an interaction with Cribbens that implies an interesting movie, we cut to Borlund’s next job for the US cavalry which is to track down Poe and Rachel Kidd (Rachel Brosnahan) who is the wife of businessman Martin Kidd (Hamish Linklater). It’s quickly hinted she went willingly so clearly something else is going on than simply an abducted wife.

Also involved in the story since they are tracked into Mexico is local land baron Tiberio Vargas (Benjamin Bratt) who uses violence and threats to control the surrounding area. Vargas is menacing and threatening in tone and just the look in his eyes. His character means business and you know it without overt action.

Before the climax Dead for a Dollar has not one, not two, but three villains. Is not one threat good enough? I hate when movies do that. Sometimes it can work but most times not so much. With all the necessary characters and scenes for them, the assorted dispositions are lazy and unimaginative. Killing a character takes very little creativity.

A lot of convenience is needed here for it all to come together. Cribbens heads off after release from prison in a random southerly direction only to stumble across a connection to and eventual temporary employment by Vargas which brings him back with Borlund who is not even looking for Cribbens. All these multiple plots that coincidentally come together serve as padding. While this might’ve been a slightly shorter film by focusing on some of the more interesting characters it would’ve been the correct move. It may have been mild on action, but it would’ve been strong on performances.

Dead for a Dollar works best when it focuses on any of the character pairings. Waltz and Dafoe are fantastic together as they are when with any other single actor here. It is just all this plot hopping waters down everything. The movie is much more interesting when it focuses on Willem Dafoe and Waltz.

Rachel Brosnahan is not exactly an engaging actress. She’s stiff like she’s trying to be upper class. We get from her are these dragging moments where she’s just being difficult and kind of cranky. I’m not expecting her to be resigned to going back to her husband. She conveys more tantrum than anger.

While one may associate Walter Hill with quality (as they should) he has his fair share of less than good. This is the latter. Maybe there are just too many villains with separate motivations. It certainly does try to take care of too much and ultimately it doesn’t give the attention that any of it deserves.

Dead for a Dollar has some shining moments but with multiple villains it only gets to okay. It’s not a complete waste of time in the character moments of certain pairings but ultimately it’s a missed opportunity.