Morto per un dollaro

Sometimes you just want to sit down and be entertained and not really think that much. Dead for a Dollar is no The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, it never strives to be a film on that scale. Dead for a Dollar is for entertainment, a western with a simplistic plot and plenty of action, a film which takes its sweet time.

A famed bounty hunter runs into his sworn enemy, a professional gambler and outlaw that he had sent to prison years before.

Dead for a Dollar is written and directed by Walter Hill, who made The Warriors which is his most famous. It stars Christoph Waltz, Willem Dafoe, and Rachel Brosnahan, which are quite big names and their performances were great. Brandon Scott, Warren Burke, Benjamin Bratt, and Hamish Linklater also star. The cinematography was amazing, with lots of stunning shots. The mise-en-scene too was great. You can say what you want for the writing, it isn't the film's strong point, but the direction is solid and the cooperation between Walter Hill and Lloyd Ahern II is terrific. About the pacing, I thought it was good in the first half but it just kept dragging on during its second half. For a low budget film, this is an excellent film, because of how he used the money for the production. Brutal action which he doesn't shine away from, how beautiful the film actually looks, Walter Hill created a good film. I liked it a lot and when the climax happens, when you arrive to the ending, the slow pacing in the second half becomes worth the wait. Nicely executed by Walter Hill.

With the help of a solider a bounty hunter takes a job to search for a businessman' wife who has been kidnapped by a deserter.

Walter Hill returns to directing delivering a bitter sweet Western. Hill offers tension, twists, whippings and shootouts with a great cast including Christoph Waltz, Willem Dafoe, Brandon Scott, Warren Burke and Benjamin Bratt to name a few. Waltz and Defoe are on form; but Scott is a screen stealer. Writers Matt Harris and Hill's story has all the Western high jinx you'd want from a genre piece. However, considering Hills past work, the camera work is lacklustre, shaky, the sound design, the scene transitions and colour timing is off, giving it a rough low budget TV feel. This sucks the life out of the great locations sets and costumes that not even the fitting traditional score can lift.

Overall, if your expecting the grandeur of great Western's you may be left disappointed, however, it offers top performances and a good old fashion western yarn.

Great to see Walter Hill still has the touch. A well acted and solid western. Many harsh reviews here. I don't know what movie they were watching or expected. Obviously, a low budget film, but so what. Not overly stylistic, more of an old school western and thoroughly enjoyable.

Waltz always solid and a nice performance by Defoe. Supporting cast and Bratt very entertaining.

Hopefully, Hill will get another chance, but in today's Hollywood probably not gonna happen. As an old fashioned western fan and admirer of Hill's career, I recommend this film. Don't be deterred by the overly critical reviews you see here.

In old-school-style 1890's-based Western "Dead For A Dollar" Christoph Waltz & Warren Burke head to Mexico after Brandon Scott who's abducted (or ran off with) Rachel Brosnahan (excellent), wife of sleazy tycoon Hamish Linklater. They all converge (with Waltz's nemesis Willem Defoe) in a small dust-bowl town in the territory of crime-lord Benjamin Bratt & his gang (inc Luis Chávez) where shoot-out show-downs beckon. Stylishly shot in sepia tones by iconic veteran action writer / director Walter Hill (his first film in six yrs (and only second in ten)) it's simple & straight but decent fare, especially for those who don't necessarily need their Westerns to be 'modernized'.

Walter Hill is back with a solid old school western.

Unfortunately, films of this type are no longer made, today we are invaded by the rubbish of Marvel, by dozens of useless and pathetic reboots and remakes and in fact this film ignored by most of the public lobotomized by the great empty and soulless blockbusters.

Hill, on the other hand, packs an exquisitely retro, dark and funny film at the right point with a wonderful cast, above all obviously the always immense Christoph Waltz who plays a character very similar to the one he played in Django Unchained, but also Willem Dafoe and the beautiful and talented Rachel Brosnahan give some really good performances.

A film that goes straight to its purpose without getting lost in chatter, without lasting 3 hours (which today seems mandatory), but the usual hour and forty-five as it used to be.

My advice is not to waste time with yet another Creed, with Top Gun 2 or with the cinecomics rubbish, but rather watch this solid film, which is certainly not a masterpiece, but it is undoubtedly a very good film, better than 90% of the trash that Hollywood produces today.