Dead Man's Bounty (originally called Summer Love) is an artistic Western by Polish director/writer/producer Piotr Uklanski. This movie has a lot of Polish actors but is spoken in English. Quite a few of the characters speak with accent, which might seem annoying to some (I had trouble understanding what the Sheriff was saying most of the time). The story can be summarized as the stranger brings a dead man into town expecting to collect the bounty for him. Instead of a reward, the town folks start trouble and a gunfight with the stranger, and then pursue him.
No one is called by name in this story. The Sheriff is played by Boguslaw Linda. Linda is one of Poland's most famous contemporary actors and has worked with Poland's most renowned directors including Andrzej Wajda, Andrzej Zulawski and Jerzy Kawalerowicz. Katarzyna Figura, one of Poland's most known actresses, plays the Woman. Czech actor Karel Roden plays the Stranger. Val Kilmer plays the Dead Man. Unquestionably, Kilmer plays an unusual role and probably one that isn't as easy as it sounds (try not breathing or blinking).
Dead Man's Bounty is not your typical western but has elements typical of westerns. It captures a bit of grossness - we are not spared in how dirty and bloody they get and can only be thankful that we can't smell them. The film is artistic in its presentation and if one took just about any single shot from the movie, it may even pass off as art in itself. Now I admit a few parts are weird and may be a turn off for some but this just may be the artistic side of the film.
This movie has the tagline of being "The First Polish Western." Although Dead Man's Bounty isn't spoken in Polish, I can agree with the tagline to some degree. A few years ago I made humorous list of statements called "you might be watching a Polish film if..." which had common things in Polish movies. Dead Man's Bounty, amazingly, has four out of four of them! I don't want to give away too much of the story so I will spare you the details on what they are.
