Django Returns

This was a nice little treat: Dead for a Dollar (2022), a late Walter Hill western. I think the most recent movie he directed that we saw was Undisputed. 

It starts with Christoph Waltz visiting Willem Dafoe in a New Mexico open-air prison. Dafoe was put there by bounty hunter Waltz, and Waltz wants to warn him not to come after him when he gets out. Dafoe says he just wants to go to Mexico, play some cards, meet some senoritas. Don't worry.

Next, Waltz gets a job looking for a kidnapped wife (Rachel Brosnahan). A buffalo soldier (black calvalryman) has taken a rich man's wife off to Mexico. Waltz will get the assistance of another buffalo soldier (Warren Burke). As Waltz and Burke ride off into Mexico, Burke reveals that the abduction was more of a runaway situation, that he knows the abductor, and that he even knows where they ran to.

Meanwhile, Dafoe has gotten out of jail, and as promised, headed to Mexico for women and cards. These story lines are pretty much unconnected, but both do meet up with Mexican warlord Benjamin Bratt. Our fugitive bride and her soldier think they can buy his protection with part of the ransom (that sadly isn't coming). Waltz and his soldier have a tense but non-violent meeting with Bratt. And Dafoe plays cards with one of Bratt's associates, beats him, and makes an enemy.

When Waltz catches up with Brosnahan, he "frees" her and takes her soldier captive, having him held in a local jail. Brosnahan tells him her story: her husband is an evil man. He let her have a little freedom to teach reading to illiterate soldiers, like the man she ran away with. She admits he was not the first man she had more than a tutorial relation with.

As more or less the McGuffin of this plot, Brosnahan is not quite what I expected. She is rather cold and despairing. She keeps her "abductor" at arms length, although it's clear he's taken with her - and of course, he's not the first. She never makes a move to escape from Waltz, understanding that he has all the power. So she's not a maiden in distress, or a bad ass. She's trapped and she knows it.

And then her husband shows up. Will Waltz back him up, or her? Will Burke support his soldier friend, or go for the bounty? And where does Dafoe come in?

The image of Waltz as a bounty hunter with a black assistant is an obvious callback to Django Unchained, which is fine. We all want more of that. He has a couple of good lines. For ex: when he shoots an outlaw holding Brosnahan hostage, she says, "You shot him inches away from my head! Are you that confident in your shooting?" He replies: "No."

Dafoe is wonderful in this, with his craggy face, deep voice and easy confidence. It's just that he doesn't get enough to do here. 

All in all, a fun little bagatelle from Walter Hill. I don't think it's top drawer stuff - but very few of his movies are (Streets of Fire, Warriors?). It was pretty much a classic western, with the obligatory scenes of people riding through vast vista. Some shootouts, some card games, and a little bit of moral philosophy. The racial component is played very lightly - the rich man says his wife ran off with a common soldier, and Burke makes him specifiy, "common black soldier". I don't think that's the historically accurate term.