Customer Reviews

Jim Jarmusch's Dead Man

5 star:		(217)
4 star:		(50)
3 star:		(20)
2 star:		(15)
1 star:		(25)

 

 

How unfair is it that Tim Keogh of the Amazon.Com organization gets to lead off the list of reviews for this movie by stating - "This disappointment from Jim Jarmusch stars Johnny Depp in a mystery Western about a 19th-century accountant named William Blake, who spends his last coin getting to a hellish mud town in Texas and ends up penniless and doom struck in the wilderness." I don't know if Tim was busy stuffing his face with popcorn but he makes three erroneous statements in this first line of his totally off-base review.

1) This movie is not a mystery! 2) Johnny Depp spends his last coin buying whiskey. 3) The "hellish mud town" of Machine is on the West Coast - not Texas. (After all, it would take a while to ride by horseback from Texas to British Columbia where the Coastal Indian Tribes were located).

You may be asking yourself why I take issue with such mundane details? The answer is obvious - to prove the point that Tim Keogh wasn't even watching this movie, and therefore, has no right to review it. Simply put, Dead Man is a cinematic masterpiece! Jim Jarmusch has made a number of strong movies, but Dead Man surpasses the others as a brilliant work of art.

You can see by reading the other reviews that support for Dead Man borders on fanatical. There are few movies that I have watched repeatedly but I continue to see this one over and over again. Everything about the film is different from the conventions of Hollywood mass consumption "fast-film". The story unfolds in a slow and methodical manner and requires much attention on the part of the viewer. If you invest in it, Dead Man will repay you many times over.

If you liked Forrest Gump and The Sixth Sense then you can go see another mindless mainstream movie with Tim Keogh and the majority of the ignorant American public. If you need more than that . . . buy Dead Man. I'll bet you watch it more than once!

I'm not allowed to refer to another person's review here, but at the time of this writing, Amazon.com was posting a review of this movie that was clearly written by a person who was raised in Disneyland. This is one of the best movies ever made. Chicago Reader calls it an Acid Western and rates it "masterpiece". It compromises to no filmmaking convention. It's hardly possible to review it without giving away important aspects of the film the viewer should experience for her/himself. The movie is not a story, even though it's told through a story. The evolution of William Blake from innocent Cleveland accountant to a symbol (for English-educated Native American reject Nobody, played by Gary Farmer) for poetry itself; the tiny little worlds of late-19th-century white Western of-necessity survivalists, and the effects these little worlds had on Blake; the hilarious campfire scene with Iggy Pop and Billy Bob Thornton (and a third person -- can't find out who), and the dying beauty of the natives; the brutal innocence of the disenfranchised Nobody whose illusions (or were they?) propelled Blake to his -- future ... I was completely immersed. There is only one thing wrong with this movie. I love Neil Young, but, unless I'm missing some important symbolism, his score could have been more, well, varied. There are not many movies I want to own but this is one.

I did not see Jim Jarmusch's "Dead Man" when it first played in theaters, in large part because of the many negative reviews it received. Roger Ebert (who I admire) all but dismissed the film with his lowly *1/2-star rating. Ebert was a champion of Jarmusch's "Stranger Than Paradise", so I trusted him and avoided the movie. But now, having seen "Dead Man" on video, I feel many of these critics (who may have been expecting a traditional Western) were unfair in their judgements. This is a movie serious filmgoers should not miss.

Johnny Depp stars as William Blake, an accountant from Cleveland who travels west with the promise of a job. This westward journey - the basis for so many other movies - is not, however, seen as something positive (Blake, in fact, is warned early on that the Western town of Machine will only offer him a grave). Things do not start off well. He arrives to find out that the accountant position has already been filled. He tells the office manager (John Hurt) that he wants to speak with the owner. The owner (played by the late Robert Mitchum) is, unfortunately, no more sympathetic and forces Blake to leave.

Without enough money to return, Blake befriends a young woman who (like him) has had her romantic notions of the West crushed. She makes paper flowers, because a real flower would never be found in the ugliness of Machine. She shares her bed with him and is shot by her lover (Gabriel Byrne). Blake is also shot, but kills Byrne and escapes on his horse. He is soon found by an Indian named Nobody (Gary Farmer) who tells him that the bullet is close to his heart, so he is already a "dead man". The two take off together and Mitchum (Byrne was his son) places a bounty on Blake's head.

"Dead Man" is an anti-Western, in the same tradition as Robert Altman's "McCabe & Mrs. Miller". But the film, which is shot in beautiful black and white by Robby Muller, is unlike any Western I've ever seen. There's a poetic quality to the film. Blake is told that he shares the name of a great British poet not by any of the white people in the film, but rather by the Indian Nobody (who believes he IS the poet).

The movie is very much pro-Native American and I admired the film for pointing out some unpleasant facts: like the fact that a million buffalo were slaughtered as a means of wiping out Indians (buffalo was one of their staples). Blake witnesses such a slaughter even before he's left the train.

And while I suppose this message could be found in "Dances With Wolves", I found "Dead Man" to be the better film.

... but it's obviously not for everybody. I, for one, found the acting, cinematography, setting, soundtrack and story to fit perfectly. This film just falls into place. It's most definately a sum of its parts. My favorite thing about this movie, is that it's filmed in black and white. I read one review where they wrote "filmed in black and white for no reason". Wrong:

1) As cliche' as it sounds, it adds to the films ambiance.

2) It's a film that takes place in the early 19th century. It captures the vintage setting. Schindler's List was filmed in black and white for this same reason.

3) It's haunting. The whole film is surreal, and the black and white helps set the mood for isolation.

But, whatever. It boils down to this: Ignore all the reviews here. Even the good ones. Rent this movie, at least, then see if you like it or not. I can promise that the good majority of you will love it.

Every time you watch this film, it reveals some more of its character. Is this a western, a road movie, a black comedy, surreal art or just something to look at while you listen to Neil Young's eerie sound track? To find your own answers you must watch it yourself.

Set in the late nineteenth century, we see Johnny Depp playing William Blake, a young accountant who gives up his sheltered life in Cleveland to head out to the Wild West. He has a job offer from a manufacturing company owned by John Dickinson (Robert Mitchum) in a lawless town called Machine which is literally, "the end of the line."

The film starts with his train journey out to the west and we see him becoming gradually more uneasy as the civilised East turns into the rough and dirty West. All too soon he is in Machine where he finds out that the job has gone to another man bacause Blake took too long in getting there. Out of money, he ends up in bed with Thel Russell (Mili Avital) the prettiest girl in town. When her boyfriend arrives, Blake's troubles get worse. After the ensuing gunfight, Blake flees, mortally wounded and leaving two bodies behind him.

The father of the dead boyfriend, Dickinson again, hires a group of killers to catch Blake. Also, he calls in the Marshals and posts public rewards. Since this is a road movie, Blake needs a buddy and he teams up with Nobody (Gary Farmer) an outcast Native American who just happens to have a passion for the poems of the more famous William Blake. Nobody accepts Blake as the embodiment of the real poet and assumes, because the the poet had already died and the man he sees now is slowly dying, that Blake must seek a place to die and return to the world beyond.

Nobody sets out to help and guide him on his journey. They must dodge the bounty hunters, marshals and citizens who want the reward and along the way, Blake turns into a man who can kill without remorse.

Surreal barely describes the people that they meet and, generally, kill on the way. There is a lot of humour ranging from Nobody's observations of European "civilisation" to the constant sniping (figurative and literal) between the three bounty hunters sent to kill Blake.

Shooting the film in black and white and using a soundtrack that is just a constant guitar presence rather than a set of songs, gives the film a outward appearance that well matches the content.

Many people will doubtless find this film deeply unappealing or offensive but they will be missing a movie that is as refreshing and stylish as anything else from the nineties.

I finally watched this film after having two people rave about it repeatedly. I can immediately see why critics panned it. It's not Hollywood flashy nor is it a deep, takes-itself-too-seriously Indie film. It is what it is.
Quite simply, it's a story of a guy (Johnny Depp)who dies. Along the way, he encounters plenty of oddball, surreal people. A cryptic Crispin Glover, Robert Mitchum with a rifle, Gabriel Byrne the jilted lover, the psychotic Lance Henrikson, and Iggy Pop in a dress.
But it's Gary Farmer who steals the show as Nobody, the mixed breed Indian who was raised in the White Man's world. Part mystic guide, part prankster.
Johnny Depp's acclimation to his complete death is fascinating to watch, as he moves from unassuming accountant to an entity he no longer understands but accepts.
This film is fantastic. Watch it and enjoy. Take it for what it is and you'll love it.

Jim Jarmusch's "Dead Man" is not only the best film of the 90's, but a mysterious, beautiful film that stands high among the finest American Films ever made. But at the same time, I can understand why many people disliked it. To quote Roger Ebert "The soundtrack by Neil Young sounds like nothing more then a guitar being repeatadly dropped on the ground". But you have to consider that Jarmusch chose this score for a reason. It's sort of like the anti-Hollywood score. Jarmusch himself said that there are so many taleneted musicians out there, he's at a loss to explain why almost all scores in movies today sound exactly the same. I've seen the movie 8 or 9 times now, and own it on dvd. The film is absolutely beautiful and quite thought-provoking. What you have to understand is that it's really a tale of one mans journey towards death, if you go in with the idea that it's going to be your typical shoot-em-up western, you're probably going to hate it. There are also alot of subtle messages in the film and plently of witty humor and dialogue to keep the viewer entertained. This is a film that can only increase in beauty and get better with repeated viewings. Go in with limited expectations and you might end up enjoying it or maybe even loving it as much as I did.

Dead Man (Jim Jarmusch, 1995)

Dead Man may be the most underrated film of the last two decades, a brilliant, surrealist look at the Old West through the eyes of a number of characters just as brilliant and surrealist as their landscape.

William Blake (Johnny Depp) is an accountant from Cleveland, and perhaps a reincarnation of the poet of the same name. He is offered a job in the pre-Civil War west, and goes out to take it. When he gets to the firm who offered him the job, the supervisor (John Hurt) tells him the job was given to someone else, since he was late. He insists on seeing the firm's owner (Robert Mitchum), who cashes him out of the office with a shotgun. That night, in the hotel where Blake is staying, two people are murdered. They happen to the be firm's owner's daughter and her fiancée. Blake is an easy target, and his pursuit and reaction to it forms the basis of the film.

Strong, wonderful performances about in this movie. The best of all is that of Gary Farmer, as Nobody, an Indian whose job, is says, is to prepare the soul of William Blake to go back to the land of the spirits. Nobody becomes Blake's sidekick and sometime mentor, helping him to understand how to get along in the West. Among those assassins sent out after Blake: a trio of crossdressing homosexuals (Iggy Pop, Billy Bob Thornton, and Jared Harris); an amoral cannibal and his two wannabe sidekicks (Lance Henriksen, Michael Wincott, and Eugene Byrd), and, hearing it through the grapevine, a pair of U. S. Marshals (Jimmie Ray Weeks, Mark Bringleson).

As should be obvious from the list above, this movie is packed with starpower. (And I didn't mention Gabriel Byrne, Crispin Glover, Alfred Molina, Gibby Haynes, Steve Buscemi, and a handful of others with smaller roles.) It balances, but never outweighs, Jarmusch's attention to detail in this minor black and white gem. Blake's journey is a thing to behold. Beautiful, violent, and ultimately nonsensical, just like the life it mirrors. ****

Some reviewers on this site find this movie totally empty and not worth thinking about. Nevertheless "Dead Man" has obviously made quite an impression on some of them, in fact so much, that they get themselves all worked up and can't wait to forget it. An apparently unexpectedly difficult decision to follow through, the alleged emptiness of the movie taken into consideration.

Some of these angry reviewers obviously HAVE thought about it a great deal too, but it seems to have resulted in little more than a headache and a bad mood because they, like most of us after the first viewing, ended up confused. This can be a frustrating and scary experience, and with little tolerance for ambiguity and sad feelings they choose to give the movie neither a second thought nor a second viewing. They are thereby denying themselves a totally unique experience of coming to love a movie more each time you view it, even after 10 or 20 viewings.

Yes, it is a sad, disturbing and confusing movie! But for most people life is at times sad, disturbing and confusing, and for some it takes a turn where there is no going back to the wellknown, there is only the painful task of letting go. Jarmusch's movie illustrates this like no other movie that I now of, and does it in a way that adds terrifying beauty to the sorrowfull recognition of this. The sadness and the beauty imbedded in every second of the movie points to something deeply human and trandescent beyond the pitcblack emptiness that some reviewers limit their insight to.

Dear angry reviewers: It is not all emptiness! This movie changes with every viewing, because you will come to focus on different layers of meaning each time. It will reach deep into your soul, if you let it. It will resonate there forever.

I can't understand why this film was so panned when it was released. I think time will be kind to this film and it will soon be recognized as a landmark of 1990's cinema. It's a haunting journey into the soul of America, deconstructing the myths of the American West along the way. Everything hit's the right notes, from the humour to the gruesome violence. It stands alongside 2001 as one of the great spirit journey films.