Dollar for the Dead

A man with no name (ugh) gets involved with a one-legged ex-confederate soldier who's on the hunt for three pieces of a map that'll lead him to confederate gold. Tailing the mysterious man is another, beefier mysterious man (Howie Long) and his band of 'regulators' who seem to want to ventilate No Name's abdomen. Emilio Estevez as No Name, I am sorry, cannot be believed. With a gut hanging over his gun belt, I felt a little awkward as he sneered out tough-guy dialogue. Then when he reached up to put his hat on with tiny little hands, I lost it. When I saw that Estevez was starring, I hoped for a character somewhat like that of Billy the Kid in Young Guns 2, who Estevez was flawless as. Mischievous, lighthearted, smart-allecky. The Spider-Man of The Old West. But alas, we're given a Clint Eastwood character that the four foot-tall Estevez can barely fit.

The script, while containing some sharp lines, seems to be built entirely around them. I tried my best to understand where Dollar for the Dead went wrong and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly went right, but I couldn't put my finger on it. A cold, quick loner who reluctantly teams up with a man for whom he feels some animosity; but somehow No Name and Peg Leg just don't achieve what Blondie and Tuco had.

Then the villains, oh my. There's a totally unexplained Union Cavalry officer who just casually shows up and wants to kill our heroes. Then there's a Mexican soldier who has some sort of weird NOT-Mexican accent that I can't understand. And Howie Long. Amazingly, Howie's bad guy is the most interesting, but, par for this movie, he's the one with seemingly the least time spent on, hence no character developement. So at last, when No Name, Howie and the Mexican soldier face off in a The Good, the Bad and the Ugly-style three-man stand-off, the only tension that's felt is from reminiscing on memories from the older movie.

A Western with Hong Kong-style action, it's what I thought the world needed. But what's here is a case of "done before and better", without a lighthearted camp that could have saved it. If you're curious to see Emilio Estevez rip off Django, Chow Yun-fat and Sylvester the Cat, then rent and be wary. Maybe with lower expectations you won't be as let-down as I was.


Baby-faced gunman   January 17, 2001
2 out of 4 found this review helpful

I can't buy baby-faced Estevez as a cold-blooded killer (with hard eyes, as someone says). With guns waving around, he wipes out not one, but two, armies of bad guys and doesn't get a scratch. Har har. In this movie a wagon outruns horses, and a priest sits on a fortune in gold while his people are starving and tormented. Ay carumba!


Great Western!! Emilio Estevez rules!!   January 16, 2004
2 out of 3 found this review helpful

This is a great western starring Emilio Estevez that's reminiscent of the Clint Eastwood 60's Spaghetti Western flicks.It's a must see!!


emilio is the best   June 30, 1999
1 out of 4 found this review helpful

the film has alot of exciting parts go emilio


Dollar For The Dead   August 6, 2007
Patricia Gross (Sun Prairie, WI USA)
At least we all agree on one thing about this movie, it is not dull.
Of what I can recall of (Dollar For The Dead), it has a lot of shoot'em up action, which for some strange reason 'impressed the socks off of me'.
At any rate, is a downer to see that right now it's coded a (Region 2). I do hope in the very near future that it will also have (Region 1) so it can be played on a regular DVD Player. Guess I'll have to wait til that one day comes....unfortunately. Oh well, thems the breaks.
To review on the acting, well it's been so long I really cannot recall everything; so a second review will have to come to be. Until then...

P.A. Gross