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Viggo Mortensen’sThe Dead Don’t Hurtwas certainly regarded as a masterpiece when it was initially released. The film brought about a completely fresh approach to the traditional genre of Western flicks. Throughout Hollywood, it is well known that the Western genre has its set roots. It is known for its knack for following unwritten rules, and almost every other project in the genre is similar in one way or another.
However, Mortensen’s 2023 film took a completely different approach to the genre, and interestingly enough, it worked very well. During an interview, he actually revealed the two key factors that he thought to be fundamentally different from others of their kind and even talked about how he wanted to push boundaries and add more representation.
Viggo Mortensen’sThe Dead Don’t Hurtis Unique
On top of starring inThe Dead Don’t Hurt,Viggo Mortensenalso played the role of director of the movie. During an interview withRogerEbert, he spoke about what went on behind the scenes of the movie. Specifically, he talked about the casting of the main characters.
It was pointed out to the actor and director that his film was quite different compared to other Western films, and it would seem that this aspect was very intentional. Mortensen talked about the fact that the film having a female protagonist was something very unheard of in the genre.
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Additionally, he mentioned that he also wanted there to be diversity when it comes to race. The Western genre is known for being very dominated by Anglo-Saxon Americans, and Mortensen countered this by casting outside of these bounds.
Viggo Mortensen Had A Vision
During the interview, Viggo Mortensenalso talked about why he wanted to make his protagonists different from traditional Western films. When it came to every other aspect of the movie, every single thing had to be as historically accurate as humanly possible. The decor, costumes, acting, and even accents. However, when it came to the protagonists themselves, he wanted there to be a stark difference in the movie that he made compared to others like it.
I thought it was important to be as historically accurate with the decor and the lamps and the clothing and other details but to have a cultural and linguistic diversity to the story and racial diversity.
When it came to the concept of diversity, Mortensen wanted there to be as much as possible. He recognized the reputation the genre has for being very centric towards the experience of a cis-gender, straight, white man and did not want his film to add to it.
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You do see Mexican and Chinese characters in other movies, and in “Heaven’s Gate,” you had Eastern European characters and languages. Still, you don’t normally have the leads be anything other than Anglo-Saxon American characters.
So, instead of doing what every other Western film has done in the past, Mortensen decided that he wanted his film to be led by a woman and two non-Anglo-Saxon American characters. It is safe to say that audiences took note of the change in a positive way.
The Dead Don’t Hurtwill be released in theaters on May 31.
Ananya Godboley
Senior Writer
Articles Published :2219
Ananya Godboley is a Senior Entertainment Writer at FandomWire, majorly focusing on TV shows, with over 2,000 articles published. She has been an entertainment journalist for the past two years. Currently pursuing an undergraduate degree in psychology from K.R. Mangalam University, Ananya also likes to fangirl as a full-time job. She covers news and analyses on anything from Rick and Morty to Hannibal and even Arcane. In between these lines, she also enjoys superheroes and Taylor Swift.A philosophy enthusiast, Ananya enjoys digging deeper into the media she consumes, trying to understand the root of her favorite characters' behavior.
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Viggo Mortensen
