After a rich career, here’s why Walter Hill is back in the saddle with ‘Dead for a Dollar’
LOS ANGELES — With films such as “The Warriors,” “48 Hrs.,” “The Driver,” “Hard Times” and “Streets of Fire,” Walter Hill established a legacy as a master mechanic of genre storytelling, effortlessly mixing elements from different styles to create fresh, fascinating hybrids.
He has also returned often to the western, with “The Long Riders,” “Wild Bill,” “Geronimo: An American Legend” and Emmy-winning work on “Broken Trail” and “Deadwood.”
Written and directed by Hill, the new “Dead for a Dollar,” out now in select theaters and on video on demand, is an example of the stripped-down efficiency of Hill’s classic work, where no gesture or moment seems excessive or wasted. Set in 1897, the film follows Max Borlund (Christoph Waltz), a bounty hunter hired to bring back Rachel Kidd (Rachel Brosnahan) and Elijah Jones (Brandon Scott), a Black deserter from the U.S. Army. Rachel’s husband (Hamish Linklater) had told Borlund that Jones had kidnapped her, but the truth is something different. The cast also includes Willem Dafoe, Benjamin Bratt and Warren Burke.
Hill’s ability to cross-pollinate genre elements also includes his work on the “Alien” franchise, on which he was an active producer on the first three installments (and
