Customer Reviews

Dead Man (BFI Modern Classics)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

a much maligned and mis-understood film when it came out, it's great to see a writer the stature of Rosenbaum giving "Dead Man" the respectful examination it deserves.

Rosenbaum mixes his own thoughtful analysis with excerpts from various interviews he conducted with Jarmusch to illuminate the many aspects of the film: from Neil Young's haunting soundtrack, to the role of tobacco, to its place in the acid western genre.

if you love the film, this book is the perfect companion piece.

Rosenbaum is, for my money, the best film critic out there. His original essay on "Dead Man" led me to take another look at the film, which has since become one of my all-time favorite movies. This thoughtful commentary will help you think about what is probably the best American film made in the 1990s. And, if you like this, you should follow Rosenbaum's columns in the Chicago Reader. I often disagree with him, but there's no one more thoughtful, informed, and passionate about movies; he's a treasure.

a much maligned and mis-understood film when it came out, it's great to see a writer the stature of Rosenbaum giving "Dead Man" the respectful examination it deserves.

Rosenbaum mixes his own thoughtful analysis with excerpts from various interviews he conducted with Jarmusch to illuminate the many aspects of the film: from Neil Young's haunting soundtrack, to the role of tobacco, to its place in the acid western genre.

if you love the film, this book is the perfect companion piece.

A short, yet thorough study of one of the greatest postmodern american films. Rosenbaum's book is a very helpful approach to anyone who might be interested in Jarmusch's films, and a usefull tool for academic analysis and research in the most talented indepedent American filmaker and his work.

When Jim Jarmusch's DEAD MAN was released in the USA, critics and the public for the most part didn't seem to know what to make of it. Though it did get a fair number of good reviews, most of those were from the "elitist" critics - Siskel and Ebert among others weren't fans. Miramax, it's distributor, unceremoniously dumped it with a minimal release during the summer - hardly the best time for a difficult and challenging art film that nonetheless with a major star (Johnny Depp) might have turned some respectable business - because the director, Jim Jarmusch, refused to cut it into what they considered a more palatable shape.

We should all be glad that Jarmusch held his ground. In Chicago and a couple of other cities, and in France and Japan, the film did reasonably good business, and in the 13 years since has come to be considered something of a modern classic. I consider it one of the greatest of all American films and unquestionably the greatest western since the 1970s, and this little volume in BFI's "Modern Classics" series by Jonathan Rosenbaum, a Jarmusch friend and admirer and immediate champion of the film, is ideal in helping to expand on one's appreciation of this deceptively challenging work.

Rosenbaum's book is divided into chapters that detail various aspects of the film's concerns, and the director's place in the American cinema at the moment. A listing:

1 - Jim Jarmusch as American independent, DEAD MAN as dealbreaker
2 - The Story
3 - On Tobacco
4 - On Violence
5 - On Music
6 - On the Acid Western
7 - Frontier Poetry
8 - Closure

Some discussion of the director's earlier work is included, and a fair amount about the film succeeding, GHOST DOG: WAY OF THE SAMURAI. The situation of Jarmusch as a poet (as opposed to a storyteller) in cinema, as an heir to the European avant-garde, and as a radical alongside such figures as Monte Hellman from the 70s is nicely detailed; what I missed was more depth on how the film functions in relation to both the classical westerns of Mann, Boetticher, Hawks, and Ford, and the more modern "mainstream" endeavors by people like Eastwood - who I don't believe is once mentioned. Still one can't have everything in a 96-page pocket-size book that has room for some stills, and I recommend this warmly to all fans of the film in any case.