Product Details

• Actors: Masatoshi Nagase, Youki Kudoh, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, Cinqué Lee, Rufus Thomas
• Directors: Jim Jarmusch
• Writers: Jim Jarmusch
• Producers: Demetra J. MacBride, Hideaki Suda, Jim Stark, Kunijiro Hirata, Rudd Simmons
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Original recording reissued, NTSC
• Language: English, Italian, Japanese
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
• VHS Release Date: March 7, 2000
• Run Time: 110 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 079284386X
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #255,574 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Elvis may not be alive, but his spirit continues to permeate the American cultural landscape. Jim Jarmusch pays tribute his legacy in his funky third feature, Mystery Train. The name comes from the great bluesy recording Elvis made for Sun Records in 1955, but the stories of wandering tourists and lost souls drifting through Memphis come from the mind of Jarmusch. Three different tales play out in a single 24-hour period, a loose trilogy spinning around a fleabag hotel manned by a sleepy Screamin' Jay Hawkins and his eager bellboy Cinqué Lee. A young Japanese couple arrives in Memphis to take the Elvis tour, an Italian woman (Nicoletta Braschi of Life Is Beautiful) takes possession of her dead husband's ashes and gets a surprise visit from a wandering spirit, and three Memphis lowlifes (including indie stalwart Steve Buscemi and Clash guitarist Joe Strummer) take an aimless and ultimately fateful midnight cruise around town. Jarmusch lazily unfolds his tales at the speed of life, the unhurried rhythms lending the deadpan mix of quirky Americana, pop culture, and cinematic poetry a quietly lived-in quality, while he juggles timelines in a trick Quentin Tarantino borrowed for Pulp Fiction. The offbeat interweaving is just another pattern to the crazy quilt, lovely examples of the mercurial playfulness of life in Jarmusch's America. --Sean Axmaker

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

38 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars There's a fix for the subtitle problem!, April 22, 2000

By 

csk (Placitas, NM) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mystery Train (DVD)

I recently got this DVD and was dismayed to find that the English subtitles were missing (as the last reviewer pointed out.) I just found a fix that may work for some people. The "Subtitles" screen lists only French and Spanish as choices. But the remote for my Toshiba 3109 player has a "Subtitles" button that can be used while the movie is playing. With "Mystery Train" this button brings up four choices: "1 Fre", "2 Spa", "3 Fre" and "4 Spa". The first two will bring up French or Spanish subtitles as expected. But choosing either "3 Fre" or "4 Spa" will cause English subtitles to appear for the Japanese portions of the film! So the disc is indeed bungled, but this workaround made it watchable for me. And yes, it's a great movie!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars MY FAVORITE JIM JARMUSCH FILM, September 28, 2005

By 

Marty Kingsley "The Omega Geek" (West Virginia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mystery Train (DVD)

How my ratings work:
5 - I really liked/loved it
4 - I liked it
3 - Could've been better/worth a look
2 - Just didn't live up to the potential
1 - Simply awful

This is the second Jim Jarmusch film I've seen and is probably my favorite of his movies. The stories are so orginal and flat out hilarious, all three taking place in Memphis, Tennesee and involving Elvis Presley in some way. The best story is the first, Far From Yokohama, involving the young Japanese couple (Masatoshi Nagasai & Yuki Kudoh) visiting Memphis for the first time. Though the other two stories, A Ghost and Lost In Space are also funny. Music legend Screamin' Jay Hawkins is terrific as the night manager of a run down hotel. Highly recomended for any movie fan or Jarmusch fan who hasn't seen this movie.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Memphis Blues, January 30, 2006

By 

Bomojaz (South Central PA, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mystery Train (DVD)

A quirky minimalist movie by Jim Jarmusch that is well thought out and cleverly devised that will leave viewers either fascinated or cold. It takes place during a single night in Memphis, and revolves around three unconnected storylines: a Japanese couple on a "pilgrimage" to Elvis shrines, an Italian woman whose flight back to Rome has been delayed, and a trio of young sleazes who get drunk and shoot a liquor store owner. They all spend the night at a fleabag hotel (The Arcade, run by Screamin' Jay Hawkins!). Jarmusch's use of flashback, a la RASHOMON, is clever and inspired. But Jarmush also likes to use long takes of scenes in which virtually nothing happens, which can make the movie feel long and ponderous. It's still the best of his movies, though.